A church divided shall share the facilities, at least for 7.5 years.

That’s the agreement formalized last week for the use of St. Stephen’s Anglican Church in Oak Harbor, formerly known as St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church.

The majority of the congregation voted to leave the U.S. Episcopal Church in 2004, a year after the ordination of a gay bishop in New Hampshire. Under the leadership of the Rev. Carol Harlacher, St. Stephen’s joined the more conservative Worldwide Anglican Communion. The U.S. Episcopal Church is a small part of that communion.

A number of other former Episcopal churches in the U.S. have done the same thing following the split over homosexual leadership.

But a minority of St. Stephen’s members preferred to remain Episcopalian and they started meeting in private homes. Also, the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia claimed ownership of the St. Stephen’s property on Regatta Drive. The congregation switched to the Anglican affiliation knowing it could lose its property if a legal battle ensued.

The agreement announced last week by the Diocese of Olympia simply suspends all discussion of property ownership for 7.5 years. In a news release, Bishop Vincent W. Warner said, “The agreement provides for St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church to once again worship in its church. The agreement provides a number of years in which no action will be taken regarding property.”

Wilma Patrick was one of the founding members of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church over 50 years ago and she’s happy to be able to return there to worship.

“I’ve been there 50 years, I feel I have a stake in it,” she said Friday. She preferred to remain Episcopalian and be part of the U.S. church, despite the gay bishop controversy. “Judge not lest ye be judged,” she said.

Patrick said her faction wasn’t kicked out of the church by the Anglicans. “We walked out of our own free will,” she said. Since then, she and about 25 others have been meeting in homes and sometimes attending church in Freeland at St. Augustine’s, which remains Episcopal. That’s where they’ll have their Christmas Eve service.

The Episcopalians will schedule their services at St. Stephen’s around the Anglican schedule.

Roger Vehorn, spokesman for the majority of Anglicans at St. Stephen’s, described the agreement as “a wonderful piece of leadership by Bishop Warner.”

While the local congregation maintains it owns the St. Stephen’s property and buildings, Vehorn was pleased to avoid a court fight. “There’s always the possibility if things go to court they won’t turn out the way you expect,” he said.

Both sides hope that hard feelings can be avoided as the Episcopalians and Anglicans go their separate ways. “The Archbishop of Canterbury asked that we find a way to respectfully disengage, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Vehorn said.

Bishop Warner expressed the hope that time will heal some wounds. “The essence of the agreement is to provide space and time for the worldwide Anglican Communion to address the issues it faces and for the people in our congregations to be at worship with their friends and neighbors, building and rebuilding relationships,” he said.