St. Andrew's church leaving its Vestal home

Congregation to worship at Memorial Park Baptist

By William Moyer
Press & Sun-Bulletin
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VESTAL -- Almost six months after withdrawing from the Episcopal Diocese of Central New York, members of St. Andrew's Anglican Church in Vestal will leave their buildings on Mirador Road this week and share facilities with a Baptist congregation on Front Street.

After the congregation's vestry voted in June to leave the Episcopal Church, leaders faced the prospect of a long and costly legal battle with the diocese over the local parish's buildings, which include a church, community center and rectory.

"We said all along that we would not go to court for our buildings," said the Rev. Anthony Seel, pastor of St. Andrew's Anglican Church. "We do not believe that Christians ought to be suing Christians. The diocese had already sued St. Andrew's in Syracuse (which also withdrew), and we decided we weren't going to get involved in a court battle."

St. Andrew's in Vestal, which has aligned itself with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, intends to relinquish the keys to its buildings on Saturday to a representative of the Central New York diocese.

The diocese will immediately consider at its options for the abandoned properties, said the Rev. Canon Karen C. Lewis, assistant to Bishop Gladstone "Skip" Adams, who's headquartered in Syracuse.

Lewis said the diocese will talk with other Episcopal leaders in the Vestal area to determine a ministry plan. A new Episcopal church in the buildings is a possibility, she said.

St. Andrew's Church in Syracuse is the only other congregation to withdraw from the Central New York diocese. Church leaders initially wanted to stay in their facility on South Salina Street, but they eventually opted to leave rather than continue costly litigation with the diocese over ownership of the properties. The congregation expects to move elsewhere sometime early next year.

Under state law, Lewis said, church property is held in trust by a local parish for future generations of Episcopalians. When a church withdraws from the denomination, it has broken the trust because it is no longer related to the Episcopal Church. Across the country, dioceses have prevailed in court cases concerning property of congregations that have opted out of the Episcopal Church.

At the root of both congregations' discontent is the national Episcopal denomination's stance on homosexuality and blessings of same-sex unions. The controversy has triggered theological schisms across the denomination, including affirmative votes from several regional dioceses to withdraw from the Episcopal Church on the grounds that it was swayed from orthodox teachings.

Seel said a final worship service for St. Andrew's at the congregation's Mirador Road building is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday.

At 9 a.m. Sunday, St. Andrew's congregation will worship at Memorial Park Baptist Church, whose leaders voted last Sunday to share space with the new Anglican congregation. The two congregations will hold separate services -- Memorial Park worships at 11 a.m. -- but will look for ways to share ministries, Seel said.

About 130 members of St. Andrew's will make the move, Seel said. Membership is down from 180 in 2003 when the Episcopal Church elected and consecrated Gene Robinson, a practicing homosexual, as bishop of New Hampshire. Many consider that event to be the catalyst that ignited the current controversy between traditionalists -- who believe homosexuality is incompatible with biblical teaching -- and others, including Adams, who believe Christ welcomes all people, regardless of sexual orientation.

Earlier this year, Adams wrote a letter to pastors, saying he would "not ask gay and lesbian people to go to the back of the bus for a time."

Central New York has roughly 22,000 members in 100 Episcopal churches fr