The Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) has started the first orthodox Anglican parish in Hawaii – Christ the Foundation Anglican Church – begun entirely by the laity. This week the AMiA (AKA TheAM) ordained The Rev. Heath Hale as a Deacon at its Winter Conference in Greensboro, to lead the new fledgling parish of 40.

“The laity started this parish and we then looked for a clergyman. Usually it is the other way around,” David Chung president of the Board of Directors of the church plant told VOL.

“We are all refugees from the Episcopal Church. We saw the direction the Episcopal Church was taking and the devastating effect it was having on the Diocese of Hawaii with gay bishops in New Hampshire and Los Angeles as the Church turned away from Scripture.

“We all belonged to Calvary Episcopal Church, but broke free when we saw what was going on. The Rector Joseph Carr was a charismatic Episcopalian who initially wanted to leave in 2003 when Gene Robinson was consecrated a bishop, but ultimately felt that he could work from within the Episcopal Church. In December 2008, he announced his pending retirement for the end of June 2009.

“The Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii, the Rt. Rev. Robert L. Fitzpatrick came to our January 2009 annual meeting at Calvary and told us to leave immediately if we were only waiting to leave after Joe Carr’s retirement in June 2009. So we left.

“We held a series of meetings in January and February 2009. From the beginning, it was important for our group to have proper spiritual covering of orthodox clergy. One of our parishioners who had attended All Saints’ Anglican Church, an AMIA congregation in Morehead City, NC called the Rev. King Cole now, a retired priest and asked for his advice and help about getting a congregation going in Hawaii. “We asked King to come. He did and he stayed for three weeks and we held worship services with between 30-35 people attending services.

“The three week period culminated with 12 people formally pledging to start a church . That was in March of 2009. Then, with Fr. Cole’s oversight, Fr. Chip Wheeler, vicar of Holy Cross of the Anglican Church in America (ACA), an ordained Episcopal priest and another reject, became part of our supply clergy to do Sunday Eucharist services. We wanted to develop the congregation and so we held twice a week Bible studies in home groups.

“We met first at an Assembly of God Church for three Sundays in a row, but when they found out we were using real wine and not grape juice, they asked us to leave. We left in love and began to meet in one of our congregation’s home. But we quickly outgrew her home. We sought the use of a local school, but they objected to us using real wine so we were reduced to Morning Prayer. By now, the church had grown to 20. We called every church in the area, but we could not get a time slot.

“We prayed and one day we discovered the Windward Worship Center with an empty church slot between 8-9am. The church property was in pretty bad repair and there was little parking due to a water line that ran down the middle of a driveway. The property was a mess. We put in a trench and relocated the water line. Now we can park 25 cars. We cleaned up the church and did some landscaping. The good news was they allowed us to use real wine for Communion.

“The rectory was also falling down due to storm damage. When their congregation saw what our little church had done to improve their property, they were motivated to undertake the long deferred repairs to the roof and to renovate their offices. Amazingly, the weekly tithe of offerings that we donated to them just covered the cost of all their materials. . Then we outgrew the place. Suddenly, we had 30 members. We held Bible studies, preached the gospel and people got converted. We introduced them to the Anglican Way and they loved it.

“Then a local Baptist Church became available. The minister was retiring in two weeks, the congregation was down to 17 and they were happy to rent it to us. The new pastor gave us full use of the sanctuary.

“At that time, we were big enough for a full time priest. We got in touch with the AMIA folk in Pawleys Island and the name of the Rev. Heath Hale, 32, hit our radar screen. He was young, committed to the next generation and wanted to reach out to the unchurched and unsaved. Our new bishop is the Rt. Rev. Terrell Glenn.

“We had finally turned a corner. With the ordination of Hale and 40 plus members and a $175,000 budget, we are on the road to a new evangelical awakening on the islands. It is ironic that, even as we grow, the five Episcopal parishes in the area have all lost their priests and they cannot replace them. They don’t have income from dwindling and dying congregations to stay open. I predict that they won’t be around much longer. They have all been reduced to mission status.”

On an interesting side note, the Rev. Joseph Carr, retired Rector of Calvary Episcopal Church, is currently involved in starting an AMiA plant in Maine, after retiring there in 2009.

David W. Virtue is a theologically trained journalist and a pioneer in Internet journalism. He has been a newspaper reporter and editor in New Zealand, Canada and the United States. He studied theology in London, Chicago and Vancouver. He is the editor of Virtue Online

www.virtueonline.org where this article first appeared and it is used with permission