In 1968, in defiance of C. Kilmer Myers, the Bishop who'd succeeded him, he married Diane Kennedy, a Methodist student twenty-five years his junior, with whom he had collaborated on "The Other Side". Diane Pike claimed Pike was only legally separated, not divorced, from his second wife in 1967, and that because his marriage was spiritually dead, Myers not only gave permission for the marriage, but agreed to officiate - then mysteriously reneged, while still upholding his judgment on their marriage. Three days after the wedding, Pike was barred from all priestly functions, including preaching, in Episcopal churches, presumably because he'd married without the approval of the Episcopal diocesan. The couple considered that their options were to demand a trial, which they claimed would have a biased outcome, or leave the church. In April 1969, they established the Foundation for Religious Transition (renamed the Bishop Pike Foundation after his death), formalizing a ministry to aid people who "found themselves on the edge of institutional Christianity." Pike formally announced he was leaving the Episcopal church, stating: "The poor may inherit the earth, but it would appear that the rich – or at least the rigid, respectable and safe – will inherit the church."