reflect the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone. In 2016, the Advent hired Zac Hicks, a presbyter in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church as its canon for liturgy and worship. From 2013 to May 16, 2021, the dean and rector was the Very Reverend Andrew C. Pearson Jr. In 2019, the search committee for the new bishop identified the beleaguered relationship as one of four major challenges facing the diocese. The parish vestry announced Pearson's resignation on April 28, 2021, stating that he was resigning as dean due to "the ongoing tension he feels in serving in the Episcopal Church." After leaving the Advent he was released at his request from the Episcopal Church and received into the Anglican Church of North America. In September 2021 he started start a new Anglican congregation in Birmingham known as Grace Church. The Reverend Canon Craig Smalley was named interim dean and rector in May 2021 and after an international search named the permanent dean and rector in May 2022. In June 2021, the Advent and the diocese affirmed a new covenant recognizing the cathedral’s commitment to a Protestant, evangelical expression of Anglicanism and stating that the it would return to the use of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer (Rite I) for its principal services. In August 2021, Zac Hicks, the canon for liturgy and worship, also left the cathedral staff. Strains between the Advent and the diocese again became public in December 2021 when the diocesan bishop, Glenda Curry, ordained four individuals to the priesthood at the cathedral one of whom was in a same-sex marriage. When this detail was made public by conservative Anglicans, cathedral leaders complained that the bishop had not told them of the individual's status. The bishop in turn stated that it was not a secret and that as a diocesan event, she did not see the ordination as an event that should be seen as reflecting the Advent's particular theological views. The cathedral campus is also home to the Advent Episcopal Day School. Carpenter House, the headquarters building for the Diocese of Alabama, is connected to the cathedral building by a cloister. See also List of the Episcopal cathedrals of the United States List of cathedrals in the United States National Register of Historic Places listings in Jefferson County, Alabama References External links Episcopal Cathedral Church of the Advent website National Register listing under Jefferson County