Fresh start: Anglican church starts in home’s basement

It’s 10 a.m. on Sunday as Father James Hutchison prepares for his usual Sunday service — only his third as an ordained priest — at St. Barnabas Anglican Church.

As he repositions his vestments and looks over his lessons, his wife Christine eyeballs his stole. She makes adjustments so the garment lies straight around the back of his neck and the ends are even in front.

Since January, the Lynchburg church has been meeting in the basement chapel in the Leewood Drive home of Phillip Weeks, retired bishop.

Mounted pictures of each of the Stations of the Cross line the walls of the 10-foot by 20-foot chapel, which seats about 25 people.

“The church originally met in homes,” Weeks muses about ancient church history.

“Sometimes they met in catacombs,” he adds.

But this day, June 8, is to be this church’s last morning meeting in the home chapel.

Hutchison says that, beginning the following Sunday, the congregation will gather at Forest Road United Methodist Church, which has agreed to host the fledgling group’s 9 a.m. services.

Eight congregants have arrived a few minutes before the service begins, and Amy Grant’s “El Shaddai” plays in the background, from a laptop.

The choice of music is one way this congregation distinguishes itself.

Though traditional hymns by no means get excluded, several of the musical selections in the service are contemporary.

Some congregants raise their hands as the music fills the chapel. Weeks plays along to the music with a tambourine.

Another thing that distinguishes St. Barnabas is the decision Weeks and Hutchison made when starting the church in January to align with the convergence movement in the Anglican Church.

The movement seeks to weave together three threads of traditional Christianity: evangelicalism, charismatism and Catholicism.

“There are churches that are evangelical, but not charismatic. There are churches that are charismatic, but not sacramental,” Weeks says in an earlier conversation.

The church differs most discernibly from some traditional Anglican congregations in its acceptance of the charismatic aspects of Christianity.

Speaking in tongues — taboo in many non-charismatic congregations — is not discouraged, nor is the giving of words of prophecy.

While some in the charismatic or neo-Pentecostal movement see speaking in tongues as “the litmus test” for being filled with the Holy Spirit — a litmus test with which Hutchison doesn’t agree — it might stem from something elemental.

“I think what we’ve been seeing is an enthusiasm for this expression of Christian faith,” he says.

Most of the classic practices and rites of the Anglican Church remain unchanged here, though.

The Eucharist is celebrated each Sunday, parishioners drink from a common cup and the service features responsive readings from the scripture and the Divine Liturgy.

Weeks and Hutchison say the idea to form the church came with what they viewed as increasing liberalism in the Episcopal Church.

The new Lynchburg congregation is one of a number around the country, many of which broke away from the Episcopal Church after a gay priest was made a bishop. They flocked to the Episcopalian church’s more conservative Anglican cousin.

While not commenting specifically on the gay bishop, Weeks says, “The Episcopal church … has departed from a lot of biblical principles that Anglicanism is built on.”

Hutchison says he has seen an increasing enthusiasm for the return to more traditional expressions of Christianity.

Members of the church, some older and some younger, all find some point of connection with the church.

The Paige family, with backgrounds in the Methodist and Presbyterian churches, has been attending St. Barnabas since January.

“This is really more of what we’re used to,” says Stacy Paige.

She attends the services with her husband Ray and their son and daughter.

Daughter Candler, 17, who cues the music from the laptop, compares the church to others she’s attended.

“It’s more open here. They want us here,” she says. “It’s not selective.”

A psychologist in the Bedford County school system, Hutchison says many don’t recognize the positive role the church can play in the psychology of individuals.

Ordained not quite a month ago, Hutchison says things he observed through the lens of his experience in psychology provided part of his motivation for becoming a priest.

“I think psychotherapists probably do a really good job of functioning as secular priests,” Hutchison says, “and what I’m hoping what we can do through this mission is that we can introduce … a spiritual dimension that has Christ at the center.”

He says he sees in the church “a centrality … as a safe haven.” It’s a view he says many people have forgotten or never realized.

Above everything else, Hutchison says St. Barnabas emphasizes having “a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the importance of Holy Scripture.”

His reverence for the scripture, in part, has gained Hutchison a reputation as “the bar stool preacher.”

In his eyes, it’s presumptuous to stand at the same level when preaching as he does to read the Gospel of Christ.

So he brings a bar stool with him and, during the service, takes a seat to deliver his sermons. He rises only when it’s time to prepare and consecrate the elements of the Eucharist.

Once all the congregants have partaken, Hutchison sends them off with a blessing, and everyone retires to Weeks’ kitchen for coffee and donuts.

“With Anglicans and Episcopalians, the service is not valid until you have coffee afterward,” says Weeks.