A core membership of 200 former Christ Church members have raised $370,000 to pay for the initial startup, with the hope of raising more to buy the church outright.
This new parish has its roots in a deep division among conservatives and liberals within the Episcopal Church as a whole, strife that came to a head in 2003 with the consecration of the openly gay Right Rev. Gene Robinson as bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire.
The founders of this new church don’t consider this a split from the Hamilton parish, but the founding of a new church under the Anglican Communion, said David Greening, 58, of Beverly, a retired marketing and communications manager from Osram Sylvania. He’s the church’s senior warden.
“It’s more of a pioneering effort on our part,” Greening said. “This is not a schism.”
There were 485 people in attendance at this past Sunday’s first two services. Many were visitors, and a substantial number of those were people who had been members of the former St. Alphonsus Roman Catholic Church and were very moved to see the church open to liturgical worship again. It was a joyful first Sunday, to say the least. If anyone out there is moved to pray for this baby church, please do!
Wonderful story of Godly Christians. Made my day-Thank you and God’s bounty be upon the congregation!
Intercessor
May the Lord richly bless your faith and obedience in the days ahead. May the Word of God be the driving force behind all your efforts. Thanks be to God for your courage and fidelity to the Truth.
Blessings and love.
I was wondering when this was going to happen. Bravo for Fr. Jurgen Liias and all those who are courageously starting this new church. It’s sure great when a new church can start with 200 or more people from day one (above the infamous “200 barrier”).
small “c” catholic, do you know if Fr. Mario Bergner (of Redeemed Lives Ministry) is among those leaving Christ Church, South Hamilton? Thanks for chiming in here. I hope T19 will follow up on this exciting new Anglican church as the weeks and months go by.
David Handy+
P.S. I know it’s off-topic, but I’ve never understood what happened with the former rector of Christ Church, +Mark Dyer. He seemed theologically solid for years, and then appeared rather suddenly to change sides and buy into the whole pro-gay agenda after he became Bishop of Bethlehem (PA). His prominent role on the international Eames Commission (on WO) and then the Windsor Commission (I mean the one that produced the Windsor Report five years ago this month) makes him a very important figure in recent Anglican history. But I’m still perplexed by what caused him to change positions. Anyone out there got any ideas about that sad development?
David Handy+
David, I’ll email you through T19
#6, thanks. You can also try to email directly (since my private mail box here at T19 is full and I can’t access it to clear it). Use fr(dot)davidhandy(at)yahoo.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
David Handy+