Nichols and the society (along with what remained of the American Orthodox Catholic Church) entered into schism with him.
In 1939, Nichols consecrated Alexander (Paul Tyler) Turner, a former Episcopalian and Old Catholic priest, as a bishop.
Turner founded a small Western Rite parish (St. Sophia) in Mount Vernon, New York.
In 1958, Metropolitan Anthony (Bashir) of the Antiochan Archdiocese of North America promulgated an edict describing the desirability of a Western Rite movement within canonical Orthodoxy.
Unknown to others, Turner had begun unofficial consultations with Metropolitan Anthony concerning the possibility of canonical regularization of the SSB as early as 1952 through Fr.