AUGUSTA, Ga. - NBC Augusta 26 News told you earlier this week about a priest and dozens of members from a North Augusta church splitting from the congregation.

The group said they left St. John's Episcopal Church because they were dissatisfied with some of the national church's choices.

Others in the denomination spoke out about the split Wednesday.

Trish Darlington was born into the Episcopal church.

“I'm what they call a cradle Episcopalian. All my life. I was raised in the church,” Darlington said.

In her lifetime as an Episcopalian, she's had doubts about different changes in the church, from women priests to altered prayer books.

“When we started having women priests I was not a big supporter of that,” Darlington said. “I didn't like the new prayer book in 1979. I thought they had gone too far.”

But with time she changed her mind. Now she says she loves the prayer book and her current pastor is Sister Ellen Francis, a woman.

“There have been enough things in my life that I thought was set in stone and had to be a certain way and found out, boy, was I wrong,” Darlington said.

So when another change in the church came along, Darlington said she was much more willing to accept. This time the change garnered national attention, in 2003, when a gay man was consecrated as a Bishop.

“I was very pleased when Bishop Gene Robertson was consecrated Bishop,” Darlington said.

But all Episcopalians, like the former priest of St. John's Episcopal Church in North Augusta, S.C., were not as happy.

Father Robert Hartley stepped down as vicar of the church last Sunday and many of his congregants followed. To them allowing a gay bishop was wrong but it was not their main concern.

Church members said it only highlighted what they say is a much bigger problem: the Episcopal church interpreting scripture to make it easier to accept.

“Based on the agenda into the Episcopal church, there is a need for us to redefine what Christianity is about we really can't redefine what God has given us,” Hartley said.

Sister Francis and Darlington say the Bible should be used as a guide. Not every passage should be taken literally. Instead, scripture should be interpreted based on many things including cultural changes and reason.

“Advances in sciences and social science will be a part of how we read scripture,” Francis said.

“I'm not a Bible literalist. I don't read the Bible and say I'm going to take it exactly like it says when it talks about cutting off people's hands and not eating shellfish,” Darlington said.

Despite their differences in beliefs, Darlington said when she heard about Hartley and most of the congregation leaving St. John's she was saddened.

“It's just like losing a member of our family,” Darlington said.

The Bishop of the Diocese of which St. John's falls under is speaking out. He said he is completely surprised by the split. He said although Father Hartley did tell him about his frustrations, he was not aware that Hartley was on the verge of leaving. He also said any division in the church weakens the church's mission.