Episcopalians in the Diocese of South Carolina are meeting this weekend to decide whether or not to leave the national church.

The controversy is over the national church's position on same-sex marriage and the ordination of openly gay clergy.

The diocese will vote on five proposed resolutions during a special convention that begins Saturday.

One of the resolutions to be considered this week calls for the South Caroline Diocese to work with other churches opposed to the Episcopal Church's stand on those issues.

Bishop Mark Lawrence called the convention. He criticized what he has called "the false Gospel of

Indiscriminate Inclusivity."

Lawrence told the Mt. Pleasant Post and Courier newspaper that he wants to serve as an orthodox bishop fighting the heterodoxy from within.

"I'm becoming a rare commodity I guess - an orthodox bishop within the church who is willing to risk," he said. "Now that heterodoxy is the dominant 'orthodoxy' of The Episcopal Church, it is those who believe like me who must challenge an unthinking conformity. How long we can do this - well that's the open question."

Last June, four breakaway conservative dioceses formed the Anglican Church in North America over the issue.

Dozens of other individual parishes have joined them.