New church founded (yet unaffiliated) in Wyoming

By Cara Eastwood

Wyoming Tribune-Eagle

CHEYENNE - Episcopalians seeking a more conservative church might find refuge in a new, as of yet unaffiliated group founded by a veteran in the Episcopal denomination.

The Church of St. Peter, Apostle and Confessor will begin meeting Jan. 18, and the Rev. H. W. Skip Reeves is eager to plow new ground with his congregation. Initial attendance, estimated between 75 and 150 people, will be comprised mainly of Episcopalians who stopped going to church after last year’s controversial appointment of a gay bishop.

I’m the last person on Earth that many people would think to do this, Reeves said. I’ve always been what you would call a company man.

Reeves served as rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church for over 10 years and retired last year. His problems are not with St. Marks or any of the parishioners there, he insists, but instead with the national church.

After the General Convention, when church leaders decided to confirm openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson and recognized that bishops are allowing blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples, Reeves said he began to feel the church moving away from his beliefs.

I strongly feel that I am not leaving the Episcopal Church, it has left me, he said in a recent letter to the Tribune-Eagle.

Reeves departure from his 34-year connection to the Episcopal Church comes after weathering several major storms like the altering of the prayerbook and the ordination of women.

But the confirmation of Robinson, however, was the last straw for Reeves and many other conservative Anglicans.

The perception of conservatives is that this is a gross violation of interpretation of scripture, Reeves said.

The Episcopal Church’s lack of official doctrine or statement of faith is part of the problem, Reeves said.

The Church of St. Peter, Apostle and Confessor, however, will be what Reeves calls a confessing church: meaning that the congregation will be guided by a statement of faith and will not hesitate to state what it believes.

St. Mark’s lost 40 percent of attendance after Bishop Robinson’s confirmation, Reeves said.

Although he made a point to not stir up dissention because of his personal view of the issue, Reeves said many dissatisfied parishioners came to him for help and advice on where to go. He waited until he officially retired before founding a new church.

Episcopalians generally don’t change denominations, he said. They just stop going to church.

Reeves said the new church would welcome homosexual people into the congregation, so long as they are celibate or have the desire to try and convert to heterosexuality.

It’s the behavior that contradicts scripture, Reeves said. Not the individuals.

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