TRINITY CONGREGATION SPLITS OFF FROM EPISCOPAL CHURCH

By Paul Cocke

News Editor

Anacortes American

Members of a new Anglican church in Anacortes say that they didn’t leave the Episcopal Church the church left them.

The Trinity Community Church of Anacortes, part of the Anglican Province of America, has been meeting at the Anacortes Public Library since August. The congregation consists of 50 to 60 people, many of whom previously attended Episcopal churches in the valley. Our people believe that they really have not become disaffected, but rather they have adhered to the faith and tradition that always been there. They’re continuing that and their feeling is that the church

they once knew and attended has left them, said Bishop John Hamers, who is leading worshipers at the new church.

Episcopal Church policy for some time has created a rift among its members, highlighted by the controversy sparked by the recent consecration of an openly gay man as bishop of New Hampshire.

Bob LaRue said he and his wife Jean had been regular members of Christ Episcopal Church in Anacortes, but that some of the things that have been happening both locally and nationally had kind of caused us to drift away.

LaRue said they attended an Anglican church in Shoreline, which led to discussions about starting a new church here.

We mentioned once or twice that it would be nice if we could have an Anglican church up here in the valley, someplace that we could attend, LaRue said.

That led to Bob and Jean LaRue and another couple, Randy and Sandra

Walley from Mount Vernon, meeting with Hamers and the new local church

was born.

But Hamers said the rift in the church stretches back decades.

The Episcopal Church is part of the Anglican Communion, which encompasses churches around the world descended from the Church of England. Anglicanism is rooted in the Protestant Reformation in England, with the archbishop of Canterbury as its spiritual leader.

Many of the early colonists in this country were members of the Church of England, but when America declared its independence from England, it became important to them to have an indigenous church.

As far back as the 1960s, Hamers said that more conservative-minded Episcopalians became disenchanted with some of the directions the Episcopal Church was taking. They felt that the Episcopal Church hierarchy was moving toward sort of watering down theology and not adhering to traditional interpretations of Holy Scripture.

So they began to break off and said, if you’re going off in that direction, we cant follow you. We’re going to stick with what we have known, the heritage of our faith, said Hamers, adding that movement has been intensifying during the last 10 to 15 years.

Hamers said that many of those people did not accept the idea that the Scriptures and the teaching of the church were subject to modification to suit the culture, but rather were God word and applicable to the condition of mankind in all ages.

And as a result of that, in some locations, entire parishes just walked away from their church buildings and left the Episcopal Church, Hamers said.

In other areas, portions of congregations left the Episcopal Church, in some cases forming their own parishes.

They thought they were in isolation and it took a number of years for them to become aware of each other and as they became aware of each other they started growing back together, Hamers said, adding there still some of that going on.

Hamers estimated there are a couple of hundred parishes across the United States of traditionalist Anglicans, some of them going under different names.

What were seeing here in Anacortes and Skagit County right at the moment is people who have more recently made the decision we can no longer go along with the directions that it appears to us the Episcopal Church is taking. They’ve said, no, we want to stick with the Bible as God’s word and be more conservative, if that’s a good term, Hamers said. There are some stay-at-homes who are now coming back to church because a more conservative church is available to them.

Were saddened over the fact that the church that we did know has gone off in those other directions, but we feel we are bound to stick to those basic fundamentals that we believe in ... Hamers said.

We fill a niche of people who want traditional worship and believe that the Bible is the enlightened word of God. It’s pretty simple, really, said Bob Hyde, senior warden for the new church.

Recently, overseas bishops who said they represented 50 million of the world77 million Anglicans jointly announced they were in a state of impaired communion with the Episcopal Church a step short of declaring a full schism, according to the Seattle Times.

And the Times also reported that conservatives within the U.S. church have asked the archbishop of Canterbury to authorize a separate Anglican province for them in North America.

The Rev. Peter Strimer, communications director for the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, which covers Western Washington, said that the church’s ordination of women as priests in 1976 also provoked similar sentiments from more conservative members of the church.

Strimer said the Episcopal Church has always welcomed and included people with widely divergent views, from the more conservative to the more liberal. Instead of leaving the church, Strimer said he wished people would stay and share their views.

We are very sad that anyone feels the need to leave at this time, especially because we feel one of the main characteristics of the Episcopal Church is inclusiveness, Strimer said. The decisions regarding Gene Robinson becoming the bishop of New Hampshire is best seen as a symbol of that inclusiveness. Those people who have chosen to leave as well as everyone in all our communities will always be welcomed back with open arms.

But Hamers and other leaders of the new church say its formation was not a direct result of the elevation of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire. LaRue noted their new church held its first service, after weeks of planning, the weekend the new bishop was consecrated.

The gay bishop issue is not the big issue. That’s a symptom only of the fact that the Episcopal Church no longer professes, so far as we can determine, that the Holy Scriptures are relevant to today society. And that has brought about this symptom, Hamers said.

I’m sure that the whole thing that came out of convention has probably been kind of the last straw for some of the folks who joined our congregation as we’ve gone along, said LaRue, adding that the bishop calls it the alarm clock going off.

We are not a church against something. Were a church that’s for something. And our thrust for the present and future is really an emphasis on building a family church where families are welcome and there is Christian education for children as well as continuing Christian education for adults, and ministering to one another in a church parish and family in a positive way, Hamers said. We want to make it very clear our objective is not to sit around and criticize other people or what they’re doing.

Locally, there have been other issues as well, including the fact that the three Episcopal churches in Skagit County share priests who rotate among them. Members of the new church said they want a priest who has the time to minister to their spiritual needs, as well as providing pastoral support for families.

However, Strimer said such regional clusters of priests working with more than one church is not unique to Skagit Valley and is indeed often found in areas where smaller congregations cannot support a full-time priest.

Many members of the new church live in Anacortes, although some come from Guemes Island, Oak Harbor, Mount Vernon and beyond, said Hamers, who came out of retirement to lead the new church.

Hamers said the intent is for the church to offer worship to Anacortes residents and to those living beyond Fidalgo Island as well, since it is the only such Anglican Church in Skagit Valley.

Church members are looking for more permanent quarters than the library, but said they work hard to make sure the library meeting room really has the appearance of a church on Sundays.

The Trinity Community Church of Anacortes holds services at 10 a.m. Sundays in the front meeting room at the library. Adult Bible study and Sunday School starts at 9 a.m. For more information about the church, call Bishop Hamers at 360-428-7709.

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