New Hope EPC, which split from the Covenant PCUSA two years ago following a publicized schism, is looking to purchase 20 acres, which will be part of a mixed-use tract

The City of Fort Myers approved a plan on Monday night for a 75-acre development on Colonial Boulevard near the intersection with Veronica Shoemaker Boulevard.

The plan includes commercial development, a cemetery, senior housing and a 20-acre parcel, which will be the future home of the New Hope Presbyterian Church. The church is now holding services in a space rented from the Brazilian Assembly of God church.

The church is halfway to a fundraising goal of $2.4 million to purchase the land. The economy, church leaders say, will determine when the church is able to build a new home on the property.

The New Hope Presbyterian Church is blessed, says pastor Bill Stephens. How else to explain the unlikely partnership with a Brazilian church? A successful fundraiser launched during an economic nadir? And now the promise of land for a new church?

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The New Hope Church was born in 2008 when about 1,150 members of Covenant Presbyterian Church, founded in 1962, broke away from their $5 million church. Stephens said theological differences prompted the exodus. The group also left the national Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and joined the more conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church.