Washington - Conservative Episcopalians opposed to the ordination of women have announced a formal split with the mainstream US branch of the church and said they were the true heirs to the Anglican tradition. The conservatives, including several bishops, said in a statement they had set up the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Inc., known in brief as PECUSA Inc. They disputed the credentials and authority of the mainstream US Episcopal or Anglican church recognised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of Anglicans around the world, and by the Church of Ireland.