Monday, November 08, 2010

Renowned Episcopal Parish Splits in Seattle; 3/4 of the parish/rector will leave to form new Anglican church

St. Luke's - one of the original lighthouse churches in the Episcopal Church renewal movement and former parish of Nine O'Clock on the Morning author Dennis Bennett will officially split this month, with 3/4 of the parish and its rector leaving to form a new Anglican church plant in Seattle, Washington.

In 1960, The Rev. Dennis Bennett became the rector of St. Luke's after resigning from his church in Van Nuys, CA in a media firestorm that broke out over his experiences with the Holy Spirit, setting off the Episcopal Church renewal movement. Membership at St. Luke's increased dramatically after the publication of his landmark book, Nine O’clock in the Morning.  He retired from St. Luke's in 1981 and spent the rest of his life preaching and teaching for church renewal.

SF has published the letter from the current rector here

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the parish needs to update their relationship status on their Facebook page.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Unknown said...

Appreciate you posting, Rdr. James Morgan but it's not helpful to make such a post that is full of shadows and innuendo and then sign off. Would you do this at your table - you realize everyone is now looking over at you with eyebrows raised. If you want to post something of substance, please do. Otherwise it's not helpful.

bb

Anonymous said...

The membership and their clergy leadership handled this exactly the right way. I commend them for it.

Jeterius

Anonymous said...

I'm part of the NW Anglican church plant in Bellevue, just a few minutes away. It'd be nice to connect up with the St. Luke's folk and hear what's going on. Anglicans get an A+ for faithful orthodoxy but a C- for church planting communication...

http://www.nwanglican.org/

Anonymous said...

Fr. John Roddam, Rector of St. Luke's will not be leading the majority out of St. Luke's. He will be doing ecumenical work instead. He resigned from the parish before the split. The Rev'd. Deacon Dan Rice (CANA) will lead the new church plant.