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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ST.
PETER,
APOSTLE AND CONFESSOR
Over the past
thirty-or-so years the Episcopal Church has been drifting to the left of
center in its acceptance of the authority of Holy Scripture and its
interpretation of its own traditions. I am sure this was glaringly
apparent to orthodox Christians outside the Episcopal Church. To those
of us on the inside it was indeed troublesome, but we in the orthodox
camp were confident the pendulum would eventually swing back and these
errors would be corrected. This never happened!
At their General
Convention in the summer of 2003 the Episcopal Church approved of the
election and ordination of a bishop who was an avowed homosexual
actively involved in a long term same sex relationship. When the
orthodox bishops challenged this action on the basis of Holy Scripture
Bishop Charles Bennison of Pennsylvania stated that, "Man wrote the
Bible, and man can re-write the Bible." This was accepted as the de
facto position of the Episcopal Church.
At that time the
Rev. H. W. “Skip” Reeves he could no longer remain in the Episcopal
Church and announced that he would carry St. Mark’s Episcopal Church,
Cheyenne, Wyoming, the congregation he had served for twelve years,
through Christmas and retire. Immediately after making this
announcement people came to him and asked that he start a new church
that they could attend with a clear conscience. On January 18, 2004 St.
Peter’s opened its doors and held its first service at the local
community college. January 18th happens to be the feast day of the
Confession of Saint Peter the Apostle.
When Jesus came to
the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people
say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist;
others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Simon Peter
answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus
replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed
to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are
Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades
will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of
heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever
you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matt 16 13-19)
We were founded upon the
conviction that the Church must confess the absolute authority of Holy
Scripture and hold to the historic teachings and traditions of the
Church. Choosing The Church of St. Peter, Apostle and Confessor as our
name seemed fitting. We wanted to be as clear and as bold as St. Peter
in upholding the Christian faith we had received from the prophets,
apostles and martyrs. We also wanted to remain in the Anglican
Communion of Churches because our people were comfortable with its
Catholic form of worship, evangelical theology, and historic traditions.
Bishop Bill Anderson of the
Anglican Church of Canada offered us his supervision and authority for
our first couple of years in existence, but he found that he was
inhibited from truly functioning as our bishop and found himself
questioning his own relationship with the liberal Anglican Church of
Canada. On October 31, 2006 we were accepted as a congregation in CANA
(Convocation of Anglicans in North America) under the leadership of
Archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria. This has allowed us to function
fully and freely under the spiritual direction of an orthodox and Godly
bishop.
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