BOLIVIAN BISHOP BAPTIZES, CONFIRMS 330 AT NEW ANGLICAN PARISH IN ATLANTA

By David W. Virtue

ATLANTA, GA—The Rt. Rev. Frank Lyons, Bishop of Bolivia, baptized, confirmed, received, and reaffirmed over 330 people during two services at Holy Cross Anglican Church in Loganville, Georgia. This marked the first time an overseas bishop from the Southern Cone has conducted ecclesiastical functions on U.S. soil—a sign of the growing fragmentation within The Episcopal Church.

“They were received into the church as Founding Members,” said the Rev. Dr. Foley Beach, the church’s new rector and a recent departure from The Episcopal Church (ECUSA).

More than 450 people attended Easter Sunday worship at Holy Cross. When the church launched, it officially had only one member—a young girl baptized several weeks earlier, according to Beach.

Holy Cross Anglican Church began on February 8 after Beach left the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta and was received into the Anglican Diocese of Bolivia and the Anglican Province of the Southern Cone under Bishop Lyons.

Bishop Lyons explained that due to the current state of The Episcopal Church, USA, he was offering temporary, emergency pastoral and episcopal oversight to Fr. Beach and the congregation of Holy Cross.

“The National Episcopal Church’s departure from Biblical Christianity on theology and morality was the basis for my leaving the Diocese of Atlanta and receiving spiritual refuge and oversight from the Province of the Southern Cone and Diocese of Bolivia,” Beach told Virtuosity.

“On this, our 11th Sunday holding worship services, Bishop Lyons baptized 6 people, confirmed 38 who publicly proclaimed their allegiance to Jesus Christ, received 44 into the Anglican Communion, and accepted over 250 from other Anglican or Episcopal churches via Letter of Transfer.”

Bishop Lyons preached from the Book of Revelation, urging congregants not to lose their “first love”—defined as one’s personal relationship with Jesus and the joy experienced upon entering that relationship.

Commenting on the enthusiasm surrounding Holy Cross, Fr. Beach said: “We have a politically correct, compromised, and unbiblical gospel that has entered the Church in North America. God will not honor or bless a church that proclaims sin in His name. Holy Cross proclaims the Gospel as taught by the apostles of Jesus Christ in the New Testament and affirmed by the historical councils of the early Church. We make no apologies for standing on the time-tested, truth-proclaiming, and Spirit-nurturing Word of God.”

One parishioner remarked after the service, “It’s great to be under a bishop who promotes Jesus instead of promoting sodomy.”

Beach noted the congregation is growing rapidly and expects it to double within the next 18 months.

After holding two capacity-filled services in a rented middle school cafeteria, the congregation celebrated on the grounds of a ten-acre site recently deeded to the church free and clear. An 18,000-square-foot Phase One building—including 14 classrooms and a temporary auditorium—is soon to be constructed.

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