(Colorado Springs, Colorado) Grace Church and St. Stephen\u2019s Parish voted to affiliate with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) in a congregational election that concluded today. Of the 370 votes cast, an overwhelming 342, or 93%, voted for the mother church of Anglicanism in Colorado Springs and one of the oldest Episcopal Churches in Colorado to leave the Episcopal Church over its departure from traditional Christian beliefs and practice.<\/p>\n
Last March the vestry, or governing board of the Parish, had voted to join CANA in a provisional affiliation that was ratified by the congregation today. The Parish\u2019s new affiliation with CANA, an American missionary diocese of the Church of Nigeria and the largest Anglican Church in the world, allows Grace Church and St. Stephen\u2019s the freedom to continue its Gospel ministry unmolested by theological innovators and revisionists in the Episcopal Church.<\/p>\n
Jon Wroblewski, senior warden of the parish\u2019s vestry said, \u201cThe congregation\u2019s decision to join CANA is the most important decision in Grace Church and St. Stephen\u2019s 135 year history. We have decided to remain true to the faith of our ancestors and the founders of this parish even as the Episcopal Church departs from the faith and the Anglican Communion.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Founded in 1872, Grace Church and St. Stephen\u2019s was the first Anglican Church in Colorado Springs and helped to establish all the other Episcopal Churches in the city including: The Chapel of our Savior, St. Michael\u2019s, and Holy Spirit (now defunct), St. Francis (now defunct), and St. Andrew\u2019s in Manitou Springs. Grace Church and St. Stephen\u2019s pre-dates the existence of the Diocese of Colorado (1887).<\/p>\n
According to the parish\u2019s rector, Fr. Donald Armstrong, \u201cThe plight of the Episcopal Church truly grieves me. What was once a great church of Gospel proclamation and social influence has now become an irrelevant and insignificant denomination characterized by theological drift and demographic decay. The Episcopal Diocese of Colorado is dying and has lost 60% of its market share of Colorado\u2019s population during the last 60 years. The decision for Grace Church and St. Stephen\u2019s was a simple choice between death with the Episcopal Church or spiritual life and vitality with CANA.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
The significance of Pentecost Sunday is not lost on the leadership of Grace Church and St. Stephen\u2019s and neither is the month of May, 2007. Armstrong said, \u201cTomorrow is the Feast of Pentecost, the birthday of the Christian church — the day we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit empowering his people to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Similarly, this month marks the 400th year since the founding of Anglicanism in America with the Jamestown settlers in Virginia. On these two anniversaries we are celebrating our heritage as Christians and Anglicans in a re-birth, renewal, realignment, and recommitment to Gospel proclamation in Colorado.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
The flag of the Episcopal Church will no longer be carried in worship services of Grace Church and St. Stephen\u2019s. Instead, a new flag and banner will be carried \u201d\u201c The Anglican Communion\u2019s Compass Rose flag symbolizing the parish\u2019s continuing constituent membership in the worldwide Anglican Communion and the CANA Banner as the standard for proclaiming the transforming Gospel to all peoples in North America and beyond. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Colorado Springs, Colorado) Grace Church and St. Stephen\u2019s Parish voted to affiliate with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) in a congregational election that concluded today. Of the 370 votes cast, an overwhelming 342, or 93%, voted for…<\/span><\/p>\n