After a last meeting tonight at the Anchorage Baptist Temple, the church doors will close to Boy Scout Troop 1316. Their relationship with the church will end on September 1.

Jerry Prevo and the Anchorage Baptist Temple chose to end their relationship with the Boy Scout Troop after the Boy Scouts of America decided to openly allow gay members into the Boy Scouts earlier this year.

Even though it was the national organization that made the decision to allow gays into the Boy Scouts and not troop 1316, it is that troop that now finds itself without a sponsor. Without sponsorship, the troop will have to dissolve.

But, in response to the move by Prevo and the Baptist Temple, Reverend Peter Perry of the Saint John United Methodist Church and other Anchorage religious leaders are working hard to find a church to sponsor the troop and avert the end of the unit. A coalition, called “Christians for Equality” feels confident that a new home for the displaced Boy Scouts will be found in one of the community’s churches.

In an email to one of the troop member’s father, Prevo gave the reason for turning his back on the Boy Scout Troop was that allowing them to meet in his church would be an endorsment of homosexuality.