His main purposes were stated as to enforce what he and others saw as "orthodox Anglican belief" against "liberal innovations" in the Episcopal Church.
[3] The diocese was very critical of the consecration of Gene Robinson as the first openly non-celibate gay bishop of the Episcopal Church in 2003.
After the birth of the Anglican Church in North America, the now called Anglican Alliance of North Florida and South Georgia reunited at Advent Christian Village, in Dowling Park, Florida, in a move to pass from a "Diocese in creation" to a full diocese in the newly created church, on August 29, 2009.
The Provincial Council of the Anglican Church in North America, held on December 11, 2009, in Toronto, Canada, accepted as a full member the Gulf Atlantic Diocese and recognized Neil Lebhar as their first bishop.
On April 30, 2012, Lebhar announced in his pastoral letter that John E. Miller III, from Melbourne, Florida, of the Anglican Mission in the Americas, recently disaffiliated from the Anglican Church of Rwanda, would be received at the Gulf Atlantic Diocese as an Assisting Bishop for at least six months, as a temporary measure until the future of the AMiA is defined.