The Rev. William Kenney was preaching from the 17th chapter of the Gospel of John.
Lay leader Brian Gring of Christ Our Savior Anglican Fellowship prepares
the altar for worship before
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"The human family of Christ … [is] to be as one," he said, "as Christ and the Father are one."
Lay leader Brian Gring returned to that point after the worship service.
"We are supposed to be unified," Gring said.
But for a band of ex-Episcopalians led by Kenney and Gring, unity comes with scriptural faithfulness.
It's why about two dozen people gathered May 18, as they do every Sunday, to worship as a fellowship connected with the Anglican Mission in the Americas.
Christ Our Savior Anglican Fellowship — it's not yet a full-fledged church — is a local manifestation of a national trend, in which former Episcopalians are placing themselves under the spiritual authority of Anglican bishops in Africa.
The newly minted Anglicans say they couldn't continue to worship in a denomination that they view as disconnected from orthodox Christian doctrine on such topics as the role of Jesus Christ and the trustworthiness of the Bible. The 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop, the Rev. Gene Robinson, precipitated their departure.
"I think if you'd ask any of us, you would get the same reason," Pat Dixon, once a member of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, said.
Most of those who worship at Christ Our Savior left St. Thomas, the Manheim Township church.
While the Episcopal denomination, which is a part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, is battling churches in other parts of the country over affiliation with global Anglican bishops, the Lancaster County group doesn't face the same kind of problem because church property isn't at stake.
A spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania wasn't able to provide a comment on the concerns of the former Episcopalians.
As Gring said, "We felt we had to make a stand and leave."
Finding a homeThe chapel at the Garden Spot Village retirement community in New Holland is the latest home for the three-year-old fellowship.
Before the 2:30 p.m. service, leaders were setting up the worship space: carrying in an altar, arranging the cross and candles, preparing the elements for Communion, passing out copies of prayer books and hymnals.
Christ Our Savior uses a version of the 1790 Book of Common Prayer and a hymnal from 1940. Dixon explained later that too many doctrinal changes were made to the modern Episcopalian hymnal and prayer book.
Kenney arrived from Churchville in suburban Philadelphia, where he serves at St. John the Evangelist Anglican Church. He volunteers his time to lead Christ Our Savior.
Music is provided by organist Mike Spangler. May 18 was Trinity Sunday, and the traditional hymns were focused on Trinitarian themes.
"We've been raised in liturgy," said Dixon, a former Catholic. "That's part of the Anglican tradition."
Gring and his wife Linda, who live in Morgantown, had been members of St. Thomas Episcopal of Morgantown. They later began attending St. Thomas in Lancaster County.
As concerns about the direction of the Episcopal Church mounted, the Grings began investigating the Anglican Mission. Easter Sunday 2005, they visited the closest AMIA church, St. John the Evangelist.
The Grings and like-minded St. Thomas members started the fellowship, worshiping in homes. For a while the group met at Sunline Coach in Denver, where Brian Gring worked.
But Sunline Coach closed in 2006, meaning, as Gring said ruefully, that he lost his job at the same time his spiritual family lost its home.
Since August 2007, the group has been worshiping at Garden Spot Village's chapel. The fellowship has been adding members slowly; Gring said about 32 attended the Easter Sunday service in March.
'The last straw'Christ Our Savior has its beginnings in the controversy over Bishop Robinson's elevation, but Gring said it was simply "the last straw for us."
The Anglican Mission allows them to maintain their connection to the worldwide Anglican Communion while distancing them from the Episcopal Church, which Gring said had been "drifting from scripture for probably 40 years" before the Robinson elevation.
According to its Web site, the Anglican Mission, one of several such Anglican groups with roots in Africa, was "formed in response to a crisis of faith and leadership in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion." Its first U.S. bishops, Chuck Murphy and John Rodgers, were consecrated in 2000 in Singapore. Murphy is the bishop in charge of Christ Our Savior.
The AMIA is a missionary outreach of the Rwandan Anglican church, under Rwandan Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini. From about seven churches in 2000, the AMIA now has 133 churches and 40 "emerging works in progress."
But the mission has been controversial, with the Episcopal Church critical of missionary activity that amounts to poaching on the denomination's turf.
Dixon said she and her husband, Richard, tried to address their concerns over the Robinson consecration and other issues with church leaders but couldn't make any headway.
"When somebody who's in charge of the entire Episcopal church stands up and says there are other ways to get to the Lord other than his son," she said, that's a contradiction of biblical teaching and orthodox Christian belief.
Dixon was referring to Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefforts Schori, the first woman named to that position in the Episcopal Church.
And that's another problem: "I believe there's a place for women in the church," Dixon said, "but not in leadership where they're over men."
The Anglican Mission Web site says that while the AMIA is in a process of discernment, it now only ordains women as deacons and not as priests.
Like Gring, Richard Dixon was a "cradle Episcopalian."
"It was very hard for him," Pat Dixon said.
Separating from the Episcopal Church wasn't as complicated for Christ Our Savior members as it has been elsewhere because they left the denomination as individuals.
Other churches that have tried to move as a body to global Anglican connections have run into problems with Episcopalian rules that say all church property is held in trust for the denomination — so if the churches leave, the denomination keeps the land and buildings. Civil lawsuits over that clause are working their way through courts in Virginia and California, among other states.
Pat Dixon pointed out that the entire Pittsburgh diocese, where she and her husband once worshiped, wants to leave the Episcopal Church.
Christ Our Savior members also have made their choice.
"It's been a struggle," Dixon said. "We may never see growth in our lifetime," but she believes the fellowship will blossom in the future.
"We went through a season of anger and hurt," Gring said. "We needed that season to heal.
"Now we're focused on what we need to do to move ahead."
For information on Christ Our Savior, call Brian Gring, (610) 286-5604, or e-mail gringfamily@peoplepc.com.
Helen Colwell Adams is a Sunday News staff writer. E-mail her at hcolwell@lnpnews.com, or phone 291-4962.
