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Saturday, Sep. 15, 2007

Building a home

Spiritual journey leads pastor to found Anglican church

It came as no surprise to his friends when back in the early summer of 2004 Peter Matthews sent out word about his upcoming ordination.

Since he first got out of college in 1988, Matthews had always been drawn to serving the church in one form or another.

But what might have surprised some was that his choice of denomination seemed to those not versed in church history an almost 180-degree shift from his childhood roots. In fact, just to hear the name -- the Anglican Church of Rwanda -- sounded as if he might be about to embark on missionary work in Africa.

But Matthews' work is not done in the country where up to 1 million people were victims of genocide in 1994. Matthews is the founder and pastor of a new congregation in the Bluegrass, St. Patrick's Anglican, which, by its affiliation with the church of Rwanda, makes it that country's significant presence in the state.

During weekly Sunday afternoon services at South Elkhorn Christian Church, St. Patrick's offers communion to about 50, mostly college students from Asbury College, young families and professionals. For a church these days, that's small, but Matthews is working to make the congregation grow, drawing on a budget he'd like to see reach $70,000 this year.

"I was brought up in the Southern Baptist background, and I wasn't familiar with liturgical churches," said Robert Mcleod, a member who is studying for his theological master of arts degree with the goal of being ordained in the Anglican Church. "St. Patrick's appealed to me. It clicked with me. The appeal to the authority of Scriptures really sealed the deal with me. To have a church that says in spite of what is going on in society that this church has decided to hold to what the word of the fathers said ... the traditional interpretation of Scriptures."

What is non-traditional at St. Patrick's is the church's emphasis on community rather than activities.

"Basically, the ongoing program is Sunday worship, and that is intentional because we believe really the heartbeat of who we are is defined as involvement in the church, around practices rather than programs," Matthews said.

A personal discovery

Matthews' own journey to St. Patrick's is multi-denominational. He was brought up in the Methodist faith. But his first job after graduating from Iowa State University was as an associate pastor for a Southern Baptist Union on that campus and pastor of a Southern Baptist church nearby.

Although he stayed with those posts for 10 years, he missed the Methodist tradition of his childhood.

In searching for that, he thought perhaps more training would redirect his path so he came to Central Kentucky in fall of 1998 to study at Asbury Seminary, an independent seminary whose student body is predominantly Methodist.

At the same time, he started attending an Episcopal church in Lexington and, after his first year at Asbury, he was asked to join the staff at the church as musical director and a lay minister.

It was there that he found himself on his version of a denominational road to Damascus.

"Through that experience I really discovered that deep inside I am an Anglican Christian," Matthews said. "I had this liturgical and sacramental side of me bubbling up from the surface. I felt drawn to Anglicanism. I discovered this treasure that I love called Anglican Christianity."

Ironically, his desire for a new spiritual home came at a time when Anglicanism was undergoing its own identity crisis as conservative and liberal factions were often at odds over church issues.

There are 77 million congregants in the Anglican Communion worldwide. Out of that 2.4 million are active baptized members of the Episcopal Church of the USA.

ECUSA is still a member of the international organization, but for the past five years or so, there are those who call themselves Protestant Episcopalians in the United States who have been at odds with fellow Anglicans in the United States and abroad over what it means to be an Episcopalian.