The church near the corner of Peace and Blount streets looks as though it could have been there for centuries, with its peaked roof and mottled brick walls ”“ except for the insulating wrap that still sheaths half its exterior.
It’s the first new church building to be built in downtown Raleigh for half a century.
“We wanted to build a transcendent space,” said the Rev. John Yates III, his breath hanging beneath the arching steel bones of the sanctuary. To his left, a construction worker rode an accordion lift to finish the details of a window that reached toward the 60-foot ceiling.
Holy Trinity Anglican Church formed about a decade ago, splitting off from the national Episcopal church alongside scores of other groups.
Read it all from the News and Observer..
Great to hear about this!
Looks like John Yates III is a chip off the old block.
This is going to be a beautiful building, and it is indeed the first downtown in fifty years. Many of Holy Trinity’s members came out of downtown Episcopal parishes. Outside of downtown, there are two ACNA-affiliated parishes in buildings they bought and remodeled for church use, and a traditionalist parish (REC) also building a chapel, to be completed soon. God’s people are at work in Raleigh.
This article is a great witness – the erection of the building causes media interest, and in so doing the journos have to give a summary of why this church separated from ECUSA.
It was interesting to read some of the critical comments – clearly people in the community are being confronted by the existence of this church, which is another good thing.
Most of all, its heartening to see a church being built instead of being closed down or sold to Muslims!
What a pretty church and full of light. How encouraging.
MichaelA, central Raleigh is a very liberal area, and it is no surprise to see that reflected in the comments. The N&O summarizes why HT people left as primarily over gay issues, but neither the article nor the brief interview with the Rev. Yates emphasizes fidelity to the Bible. It’s not a surprise that the N&O wouldn’t emphasize that. I know many HT parishioners and can testify that Scripture is a major focus there.
I have really enjoyed watching Trinity over the years — when they left I admired their organization and structure greatly — they treated it like an already-formed entity, and I remember how carefully they did their rector search process.