After breaking Episcopal ties, Anglicans flourish
Posted December 15, 2006
When it severed ties with its denomination, Church of the Apostles forfeited more than its “Episcopal” label. It also gave up its buildings, its bank accounts, its furniture, even its name tags.
For nearly two years, the Lexington, Kentucky congregation met in an elementary school cafeteria, but now the church has a home of its own again.
Apostles Anglican Church bought Chevy Chase Baptist Church’s building earlier this month for $1.8 million.
On Sunday, they gathered for their first morning worship service. The Rev. Martin Gornik, pastor of Apostles, says churchgoers contributed $1.5 million in cash and pledges in about six weeks to make the purchase possible.
“I think it’s a testament that this congregation’s courage and hope had not been crushed by what had happened,” Gornik said. “There’s a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm.”
The new facility seats 350 people and is across the street from the Catholic Cathedral of Christ the King.
Moving wasn’t difficult. Other than some office furniture and supplies, everything the church owned fit in a 14-foot trailer.
Now affiliated with the Anglican Church in Uganda, Apostles has average attendance of about 100 people. While some conservative Episcopal congregations have chosen to stay and fight in the courts for their property, Gornik says that wasn’t an option Apostles wanted to pursue. “We are glad to be out and to be moving forward in mission, and we have no regrets,” he said.
Lexington bishop Stacy Sauls, who helped start a new Episcopal parish in Apostles’ old building, said he wishes the best for the breakaway group.
“I am glad to hear that the people of the Church of the Apostles have found a new home. I pray that their ministry will flourish in their new location and the people of Lexington will be well-served by their ministry,” he said in a statement. “I am saddened beyond words that their relationship with us has been broken, but I wish them well, and I entrust the healing that I know God intends to the love of Jesus in whom all things are possible.”
Apostles is one of dozens of Episcopal congregations across the country to lose most or all of their members after the denomination consecrated an openly gay man, Lexington native Gene Robinson, as bishop.
Another breakaway congregation, St. Andrews Anglican Church in Versailles, meets in a Woodford County elementary school. Formed by former members of St. John’s Episcopal Church, St. Andrews has purchased 7 acres at the corner of Bluegrass Parkway and Route 33. It hopes to break ground on a new 400-seat sanctuary in the summer.
Also affiliated with the church of Uganda, St. Andrews plans has average attendance of about 180, according to Rev. David Brannen, the church’s pastor.
Members of St. Andrews also lost the sanctuary and trust funds when they walked away from the Episcopal Church, but they are prospering anyway, Brannen said.
“We don’t have to have a building to accomplish our purposes,” Brannen said. “The people are far more valuable than the property.”
Archived Comments
Apparently the Apostles Angelican Church has yet to stumble across Roman 13:10:
Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
Denying a neighbor equal rights because his or her activities don't jive with the Apostles Angelican's perspective has no biblical or Constitutional foundation.
Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereofLeviticus 25:10 and Liberty Bell inscription excludes no one.
I like the story.
And I'm afraid, Mr. Dunn, that Christians by definition are tragically uninterested in any "Constitutional" foundations for their faith. What's more, the rhetoric of "rights" is precluded by a Christian confession: for people who receive their lives as gifts from God, the assertion of "rights" stands in contradiction to that.
As a faithful gay Christian I am saddened beyond words that a homophobic church like Apostles "Anglican" has moved into my neighborhood. I know of people that have left there because they are so very tired of the constant anti-gay rhetoric that goes on.
The only reason they were able to aquire Chevy Chase Baptist is because of a very wealthy supporter of their anti-gay cause.
Bishop Sauls statement was very pastoral and diplomatic.
And as un-Christian as it sounds, as a gay man they can forget any love from me, if it matters.
And Frank I apologize for the divise nature of my post, but these issues are personal.
Editor's note: Allen, thanks for being willing to share your story.
Frank, I admit my own blogging is often, maybe always, very subjective. Perhaps all blogs are like that to a greater or lesser extent. But don't you think that this particular piece would have been made fuller with a few comments from, if not the research of a day or two with, the remaining members of the congregation at St. John's and the two new congregations that have grown from the property formerly used by Apostles'? As an ex-Baptist I have seen so many danged splits in my life, with each side of the split demonizing the other side, that I think it would pay to consider the other side of these two churches' splits too.
Editor's note: John, with only 3.5 days left as a Herald-Leader reporter and a long to-do list, I wasn't able to write a lengthy story about this topic. I didn't interview parishioners on either side. I noted the news and got a comment from the diocese.