When I was a young child, my mother used to read to me the wonderful nonsense poems of childhood. About the Owl and the Pussycat who went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat, about the Walrus and the Carpenter and all the others. My favorite was the Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat. These were two stuffed animals who fought night and day until that fateful time when they both disappeared because - and here came the dramatic part - they ate each other up. Which brings me to the Episcopal Church's recent General Convention.

The cleaning crews will have come and gone, sweeping away the drifts of paper and tossing out the last of the plastic cups and soda cans. And once again our beloved church emerges more bruised, battered and shattered than it has ever been.

But there is a solution.

It is in the Yellow Pages. Any Yellow Pages of any city. I found it in the Yellow Pages for Seattle and vicinity. You can find it in yours.

Look under Churches.

Here I found Churches: Lutheran, and learned that we have five different Lutheran churches here, with a combined number of parishes totaling 129. Then, walking my fingers along now, I come to Churches: Methodist. And here I count seven Methodist churches with individual parishes numbering 71. Then on to the last one I'm looking for. Churches: Presbyterian. There are six Presbyterian churches in my area, with a total of 89 parishes.

When other churches come to the parting of the ways, they part. What a concept! Then each goes on to flourish as a separate church.

The Episcopal Church is, and has been for some time, two separate churches, with two distinctly different theologies [TLC, Sept. 7]. Why then should these two churches continue yoked together in mutual misery, while the timid quiver with fear and trembling at the word "schism"? This keeps us falsely bound together pretending to a "unity" now totally counterfeit.

At one time, it was said that the only thing holding the Episcopal Church together was the Church Pension Fund. This is not true now. Federal law here mandates portable pensions, and any Episcopal priest with five years invested in the CPF can make a change and take a pension.

The Episcopal Church has moved beyond being one church. More delay in dealing with this - legally, officially, peaceably - can only damage both churches further. Healing can take place only when each of these two churches can go forward independently, to teach the word of God as each understands it.

Let us begin this now, with mutual respect and loving-kindness, as two friends parting at the crossroads and wishing one another a prayerful "Godspeed."

The worldwide Anglican Communion must help get its American house in order by guiding and monitoring this process. This separation in the American church is inevitable and overdue and absolutely must be on the agenda next year at the Lambeth Conference.

Think on this. Pray about this. And please prepare to help in all the ways you can.

Virginia Myers is the author of Vessels of Honor, a novel set against the background of the divided Episcopal Church, published by Thomas Nelson Publishers. She resides in Seattle, Wash.