For two churches, a new beginning

Joy was the pervading emotion at St. George's Anglican Church and Grace and St. Stephen's Episcopal Church during Palm Sunday services, but there was also a touch of sadness.

Some Anglican parishioners mourned the leaving of the gothic stone church on North Tejon Street, while a handful of members of both parishes lamented the emotional toll wrought over the last two years following the group split.

The congregations had only a few days to organize Palm Sunday liturgies, and both groups' liturgies encountered technical and organizational hiccups. But none of that mattered.

A new day for St. George's and Grace and St. Stephen's had begun.

"It's a major transition from the huge gothic church," St. George's priest Alan R. Crippen II said Sunday, "but it feels great."

On March 26, 2007, the Episcopal congregation that met at 631 N. Tejon St. split when its vestry voted to leave the national body and align with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, or CANA. The CANA parish continued to worship in Grace Church, while the Episcopal group met at First Christian Church downtown.

A lawsuit was filed to decide ownership of the church property, leading to a 4 1/2 week trial, the longest church trial in Colorado history. Last month, a Fourth District Court judge ruled in favor of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado and the Episcopal Church, ordering the CANA parish to vacate the Tejon St. church, which it did by April 3.

Over the past several days, Grace and St. Stephen's Episcopal parish moved back into Grace Church, while St. George's signed a 6-month lease to worship in a nondescript building in the Mountain Shadows area that formerly housed the Renaissance Academy, a private school.

At St. George's Church, which is tucked among craggy red rocks near a canyon where goats sometimes roam, three Palm Sunday liturgies were held, each drawing about 200 congregants, a typical turnout for the Anglican parish.

Congregants sat in folding chairs elbow to elbow in a reception hall, which has a towering girded ceiling and pastel walls. On one wall hung the symbol of the Anglican Communion, a blood-red cross. Light streamed into the worship center from large windows.

The Rev. Donald Armstrong, head priest at St. George's, presided over the services. During the second service, Armstrong joked about the restriction of space and the secular surroundings. "We just happened to be quite spoiled for a number of years," he said, referring to Grace Church, which is drenched in Christian art and symbols.

Kathy Buzby, 77, said the Palm Sunday liturgies at St. George's represent a new beginning. "When you drive up here you think, God planned this," said Buzby, a 3-year church member. "But what makes it so beautiful are the people."

The Episcopal parish held a single liturgy at Grace Church attended by an overflow crowd of about 600, more than twice its normal weekly attendance.

In contrast to the bright and secular ambience at St. George's, Grace Church congregants were surrounded by towering gray walls and stained glass windows depicting saints and Christ. The parish gazed upon a gilded altar overflowing with religious symbolism.

A massive pipe organ boomed as the choir raised its voice in song.

During the greetings portion of the somber liturgy, a staple of Anglican services on Palm Sunday, congregants hugged, laughed and joked with one another.

While Episcopal vestry member Edward Brown, 47, felt the return to Grace Church was bittersweet - "The body of Christ was injured in all this," he said - parishioner Bruce MacHaffie was filled with joy as the organ roared and the choir sang.

"The is absolutely fabulous," MacHaffie, 64, said.

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