St Brendan's Anglican Church
 

Welcome to St. Brendan’s Anglican Church

A Brief History

During May 2007, a group began talking and e-mailing each other about starting a Sunday evening prayer group with bible study.  On June 17, 2007 we held our first meeting in one of our homes.  The evening was full of fun and excitement – potluck dinner, evening prayer and bible study.  There were fourteen of us that shared common Anglican bonds.  We enjoyed it so much that we decided to meet weekly on Sunday evenings for fellowship, evening prayer and bible study.

As we discussed our experiences, it became evident that we all had a common concern about the direction The Episcopal Church was taking.  So we began discussions about forming an Anglican church with traditional values.   Our first efforts were to develop our core values statements that were titled: "What We Are and What We Believe" and "Who We Are and What We Know."   With these finished it became obvious we needed Vision and Mission statements so we spent several weeks developing them.  During these first weeks we decided we needed a name for our church.  Several names were suggested, we came down to two finalists and the end result was St. Brendan's Anglican Church.  In case you are wondering about the connection, St. Brendan called "the Navigator", "the Voyager", or "the Bold," was known for being a mariner and thus a connection to Bellingham and its connection to the sea.

Intertwined amongst all of the above efforts that were taking place, we developed articles of incorporation and bylaws, incorporated, obtained a Federal Tax Identification number and elected our first Vestry.  Needless to say, that was a very busy time for all concerned.

During our initial meetings, we discussed affiliation with a national Anglican organization.  We contacted several organizations and are using one as resources until we are a self-sustaining church.  Then we will consider affiliation with one of them.

One of the resources we obtained was a list of milestones that need to be accomplished to start a church.  This list was adopted as our checklist of activities that must be accomplished before we had our first official church service open to the public.  As we met each week we reviewed the list and assigned tasks to be finished during the next week(s).  As we finished the list, we became St. Brendan's. 

Late summer, we set a target date of having our first Sunday service on November 4, 2007, All Saints day.  To meet the November 4^th date we needed two major things to happen:  we needed a place to worship and we needed a "Supply Priest" to celebrate communion. 

The Facilities committee searched the community and found several options and quickly settled on St. Paul's Episcopal School's chapel.  The major advantage St. Paul's school had was a permanent chapel that could seat well over 100 people.  The school also provided access to meeting rooms for bible study, Sunday school and other meeting during the week. A rental agreement was negotiated and signed in mid September 2007.

During the September/October time period, contacts were made with other orthodox Anglican groups in Vancouver, Canada and Poulsbo, Washington to see if there were any clergy that would be willing to help us during our first few months.  The support we received was overwhelming.  By the end of September and early October we had supply priests scheduled for every Sunday in October and November. 

An important set of activities that took place in the fall of 2007 centered on the Worship Committee:  Processes were developed to produce service booklets, bulletins, obtain altar vestment and vessels,  flowers and all manner of things that were necessary to have a full worship service. The Worship Committee was very busy.  They even persuaded Deacon, Pam Schmaling, to develop and give our first eight sermons based on our core values statements that are found in the document "What We Believe."

On November 4^th, 2007 St. Brendan's opened its doors at 9:00 AM with The Rev. Kathy King officiating at the service; Deacon Pam Schmaling assisted and gave the sermon.  There were thirty five in attendance.  A heart warming experience was had by all that attended.

We knew that it would not take long before we would need to call a permanent rector; if St. Brendan's was to continue to grow.  In January 2008 St. Brendan's began discussions with The Rev. Kevin Allen to determine if we would be interested in becoming our first Rector.  Fr. Kevin was called and his first service at St. Brendan's was on March 4^th, 2008. 

On May 13^th, 2008 The Bishop of the Diocese of Recife, The Rt. Rev. Robinson Cavalcanti officiated at the services where Fr. Kevin was officially received as the rector of St. Brendan's Anglican Church.  During this service St. Brendan's first two communicants were received.

There needs to be a special thanks to those that were a part of this process to form St. Brendan's. They are: