Members of the area’s largest Episcopal congregation have established a new religious corporation and purchased a former synagogue in the Town of Tonawanda, as they move ahead with plans to split from the Diocese of Western New York. The purchase of the former Temple Beth El complex at 2368 Eggert Road was finalized Friday.
St. Bartholomew’s Christian Church paid $750,000 for the 37,000-square-foot facility and expects to make another $125,000 in changes and improvements, said the Rev. Arthur W. Ward Jr., longtime rector of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church.
The congregation is joining hundreds of parishes around the country that have abandoned the liberal-leaning Episcopal Church over such issues as interpretation and authority of scripture, the path to salvation and acceptance of same-sex marriages.
But the congregation voted near unanimously not to try to retain property at Brighton and Fries Road, where it has been worshipping since 1960.
In this state, defecting congregations typically have lost in legal battles with dioceses to hang onto the property.
The former synagogue, less than a mile from the current location, became available after Temple Beth El merged in May with Temple Shaarey Zedek on Getzville Road in Amherst.
The congregation, which Ward will continue to lead, ultimately plans to refer to itself as St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church.
Ward and other parish clergy have asked Bishop J. Michael Garrison of the Diocese of Western New York for a transfer to the Diocese of Argentina, which is part of the province of the Southern Cone in the Worldwide Anglican Communion. The province is sympathetic to American churches that disagreed with the 2003 consecration of an openly gay bishop in the United States.
Ultimately, those churches and dioceses hope to form a new American province.
Garrison has said he will keep St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church going in its present location.
The church’s current members plan a final service Dec. 14 in the Brighton Road church and their first service Dec. 21 in the former synagogue.
Garrison announced that he will hold a meeting and prayer service at 7 p. m. Dec. 15 in the Brighton Road church, where he also will preside at worship services at 10 a. m. Dec. 21 and on Christmas Eve.
The defecting congregation will be able to take an original wooden altar from the Brighton Road church for use in its new church, as well as memorial plaques, Ward said.
It also received wooden kneelers removed from the former St. Florian Catholic Church in Black Rock, which is now owned by Renovation Church, an evangelical church previously know as The Chapel at Elmwood.
A cross and new stained-glass windows also will be installed in the former synagogue, Ward said.
About 500 people had worshipped each weekend in St. Bartholomew’s. The congregation has long been at odds with the national church. In 2003, when the Rev. Gene Robinson was elected bishop of New Hampshire, the church withdraw most of its financial support from the Western New York Diocese.
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(Source: CAR)