In less than two years, founders of Christ the
Redeemer Anglican Church have not only managed to fill the pews, they
have raised enough money to buy the former St. Alphonsus Roman Catholic
Church property outright.
Christ the Redeemer, which broke away from Christ
Church in Hamilton over what they saw as "moral drift" in the Episcopal
Church as a whole, had been leasing the former Catholic church since
2009.
On Feb. 16, the Anglican church paid $1.6 million for
the property, after raising $800,000 for a down payment in just six
months. The deed was placed on the altar.
The Elliott Street church, built in 1967, features an
unusual octagonal shape and colorful stained-glass windows.
The Boston
Archdiocese closed it in 2004 amid a round of parish closings and sold
it to the Beverly Church of the Nazarene two years later.
Most of the approximately 5-acre property sits in
Danvers, though the parking lot is in Beverly, said senior warden David
Greening, a retired marketing and communications manager from Osram
Sylvania.
When Church of the Nazarene could not make a go of it
at the location, its leaders reached out to those who were thinking
about leaving Christ Church in South Hamilton in 2009 and starting a new
church.
They included Christ Church's former 12-year rector, the Rev.
Jurgen Liias.
Greening and Liias said there was a bit of divine
providence in finding this church. Nazarene leaders had pondered selling
the property to a developer but wanted it to remain a church, they
said.
Christ the Redeemer founders were looking at high school
auditoriums, a closed Ford dealership and other venues when they got the
call about the building.
They leased the church, with the intent to buy it, in August 2009 and held their first worship service that October.
Church leaders like the location because it is
centrally located not far from Route 128 on busy Route 62, a location
that may help the church grow.
The church's Sunday services now draw more than 300 people, up from a core of 180 at the start, they said.
Liias and Greening said the breakaway from Christ
Church was painful, but not all negative. Christ the Redeemer was, in a
sense, born out of Christ Church, Greening said.
Liias had been head of
Christ Church since 1997, and many of its longtime leaders, including
Greening, helped found the new church.
Christ the Redeemer founders were really breaking away
from the Episcopal Church amid a deep division among liberals and
conservatives, strife that came to a head in 2003 with the consecration
of the openly gay Right Rev. Gene Robinson as bishop of the Diocese of
New Hampshire.
Though there was pain for many in the split, both those
who were leaving and those who were staying came together in Christ
Church and prayed before the new church opened in Danvers, Lilias said.
He counts the Rev. Patrick Gray, the new leader of Christ Church, as a
good friend.
"I certainly think everyone is happy. People can start
buckling down and doing the work God has given us to do," Gray said of
the aftermath of so many leaving. Friendships formed before the split
continue.
Christ Church's Sunday services average about 210, and
Gray sees attendance steadily increasing.
He has reached out to the
community through his own Facebook page and programs like a home brew
ministry where people can gather and learn about making beer.
While he was leading Christ Church, Liias said there
had been talk of starting a new church.
And for him, he said, the issue
was "much deeper" than the acceptance of a gay bishop.
As a conservative
evangelical in an increasingly liberal American Episcopal Church, Liias
said he "felt like we were quarantined by the diocese of
Massachusetts."
He believed they were leading church teachings further
and further away from the Bible.
Theological debates had become a distraction.
"I'm just glad I'm not going to meetings where I'm having arguments all the time," he said.
Christ the Redeemer now falls under a new province of
the Anglican communion, one not recognized by the Archbishop of
Canterbury, but one that grew out of a movement started by African
bishops who tend to be more conservative.
Christ the Redeemer Church
falls under what is called the Anglican Church in North America.
In a real sense, being able to buy the church was an answer to their prayers, Liias said.
"Above and beyond all reasons," Liias said of the split, "a lot of us felt God wanted us to start a new church."