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Kerry Dorrell
Professor Matthew Friedman, Ph. D
Mission and Biblical Theology
18, August 2019

A Case Study for Theology of Mission:

St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, Versailles KY

In June of this year, I transitioned from long-term vocational ministry at a Christian &

Missionary Alliance church to a worship consulting job at an Anglican Church in a neighboring

county. I immediately recognized that the culture of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church seemed, on

the surface, to be very different than any church I’d yet been a part of. This paper is an effort to

use the tools and ideas from this course as a cross-cultural lens to get to know this church and

their culture and sub-cultures, in order that I can be of the greatest service to this part of the body

of Christ.

I’ve divided the information I’ve considered into the following sections: 1. Ethnographic Study,

2. Theology, 3. Mission, 4. Questions Raised, and, 5. Recommendations.

1. Ethnographic Study1

1 Observations made in the Ethongraphic Study were obtained May 13 – August 15, 2019 through conversations
and interactions with the following congregants and friends of St. Andrew’s Church: Paul Afdahl, Jeff Ash, John
Backs, Jennifer Barber, Mitchell Baumann, Jewel Brandenburg, Fr. David and Claire Brannen, Allison Bryant,
Charmayne Carter, Fr. Hule Goddard, Dr. Bill Goold, Bill Hallman, Kelly Langdoc, Robbie Lyons, Fr. Michael and Robin
Matlock, Isaac Matlock, Brian and Melinda McLaughlin, Katey Meares, Pam Menges, Evan and Leslie Miller, Fr.
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a. History

Dr. Stephen Elliott wryly stated, “There is always a measure of protest within every

church plant” (Elliott). This is certainly the case for St. Andrew’s Anglican Church. In 2003, The

Episcopal Church (USA) ordained the first practicing gay Bishop. In the subsequent fallout,

many congregations sought avenues to uphold biblical, orthodox values. St. John’s Episcopal

Church in Versailles, KY sought to call Fr. David Brannen as rector. He was a priest with an

evangelical reputation, and the more liberal Bishop of LexDiocese refused to affirm Brannen’s

call, and instead fired the vestry of St. John’s and de-frocked Brannen (Advocate).

Like many other churches in what became known as “the Anglican realignment” (Harris),

this congregation relinquished their physical properties to the denomination and reorganized as

an Anglican church plant, initially coming under the Bishopric of The Church of Uganda2. In

2008, the Anglican Church of North America3 was formed, which St. Andrew’s joined. After a

number of years of meeting in rented facilities, the church purchased the former Ukrainian

Pentecostal church building and renovated it for its ministry. In 2012, St. Peter’s Anglican

Church4 was planted in Frankfort, KY as a daughter church of St. Andrew’s.

b. Cultural Forms

From the beginning, St. Andrew’s elected to have two services – one more traditional and

the other more contemporary in terms of the music used. The remainder of both services used

identical liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer for celebrating the Eucharist. After almost 15

Samuel Obudena, Tom Peevey, Marian Peevey, Todd and Julie Renner, Dyer Rodes, Carol and Fred Ruppel, Dr.
Stephen Seamands, John Sheffler, Ken and Martha Shirkey, Tom Thornbury, Fielding Walker, Sharon and Jonathan
Werner, Elizabeth Wolfe, Rachel Wolfe, Laura and Jack Zoldak.
2 https://churchofuganda.org/
3 https://anglicanchurch.net/
4 https://stpetersfrankfortky.com
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years of separate services, The vestry sensed that the church expressions were drifting apart. In

the spring of 2019, the leadership voted to combine into one unified service.

As an outsider to this community, I made observations while beginning to attend the

weekly Sunday morning worship service. This service includes lots of spoken prayers, both by

individual leaders and the congregation. It also includes songs – some sung by everyone, and

some led by a select group. Various musical instruments are used – a piano, guitar, drums, and

keyboard. There is standing and kneeling and sitting at various parts of the service. Just before

the beginning of the service, people begin to gather and sit in the audience. Some people kneel in

front of their chairs, close their eyes, and become motionless for a few minutes before sitting

down. Music begins, and the audience begins to sing songs that the ‘community insiders’ all

seem to know. During the first song, a parade of people enter the building from the back,

marching in, following a cross on a pole which is carried to the front of the building and set in a

type of stand just in front of a raised dais or stage. These processors are dressed in robes, some

with colorful stoles on them. Some in this group move up some steps onto a corner of this stage

behind those playing musical instruments and appear to help lead the singing throughout the

service. The individuals with the colored stoles also move onto the other side of the stage. They

seem to be the people in charge.

There are times when most of the people do a ritual where they touch their forehead, then

their belly, then their left shoulder and then their right shoulder. I observed that many do this

ritual when certain words are said by everyone. Many people also performed this ritual when

they entered and also when they exited the building, first dipping their fingers into a bowl of

water seemingly put there for this purpose. Some people lower their eyes and bow their heads

when the cross on the pole comes by them. They also sometimes do this same thing when they
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come near a table set in the center of the stage. I’ve seen people do this bowing near the table

throughout the week, even when no services are taking place and when people aren’t gathered in

the audience.

The words that are said by those in charge and recited by the audience seem to be of

several types; 1)prayers to the divine, 2)recitations of the common beliefs of the community

regarding the divine, and 3)the leaders speaking to the audience a)on behalf of the divine to the

people and b)on behalf of the people to the divine. It would be fair to infer that these leaders

form a special class of priests with special powers and authority to act and speak on behalf of the

community and at times function as a mouthpiece for the divine.

Among this group of priests, there seem to be senior and junior members. The senior

members have colored stoles that hang on both sides of their neck. The junior priests have stoles

that only hang on one side. If ceremonial clothing is an indicator, under the priests, the musicians

and people attending the activities of the table are next in importance. Some of the singers are

robed while others wear the common “street clothes” of the audience. There is no place reserved

for the plain-clothed people on the stage, so they sit in the audience when they aren’t playing and

singing. Other members of the audience in regular dress come up to read and lead the audience in

certain prayers and certain readings from one of their holy books. There are prayers of praise to

the divine and prayers of confession, asking for forgiveness and cleansing from sin. The leaders

also appear to be required to return to their chairs in the audience.

There seem to be three holy books. One is called the Bible, the second is called the Book

of Common Prayer, and the third, used mainly by the singers and a few of the older people in the
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audience is called The Hymnal 1982, containing the music and words to about half of the songs

used in a typical service.

Approximately halfway through the service, one of the senior priests reads from the Bible

and speaks words of instruction to the people, apparently from the divine, based on the divine

words of the Bible. This time of instruction feels more informal and conversational, using stories

that sometimes even elicit laughter from the audience. This lasts around 30 minutes and at times

has the tone of an emotional appeal to the community to better attend the wishes of the divine.

After this talk, everyone stands and is instructed to say the word “peace” to one another. Some

community announcements are made and then it seems that the most important part of the

service takes place. The priests go to the central table and uncover what appears to be wafers and

a chalice with some liquid. They speak words about these items and lift them high, invoking

some form of blessing upon them. They serve each other these wafers and a sip of what is in the

chalice and serve some of the musicians and then invite all in the audience to come and kneel in

groups in front of the stage to receive the same. While this is going on, songs are led by the

robed singers, sometimes with the accompaniment of the musicians. After everyone has come

and then returned to their seats, the priests cover the wafers and chalice, as they were before, and

then, all sing one more song while those on the platform march out, again following the cross.

After this final song, one of the priests speaks a type of blessing over all assembled, and all of

the people shout, “Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!”, and the service is over. People then make their

way to another part of the building to enjoy some food and drinks and conversation.

This narrative, while perhaps a bit obtuse, reflects what a complete outsider might

experience at St. Andrew’s Church. Most people would have some idea what some of the forms

mean but might find it hard to keep up. The church helpfully provides a large bulletin with all of
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the liturgy and prayers printed out and with a few sidebar notes explaining some things. I have

come to appreciate the meanings behind the forms, but after attending for about ten weeks, I still

find myself saying the liturgy out of rhythm with the congregation at times and missing hidden

actions that aren’t explained in the bulletin. It definitely has the vibe of a secret society. Children

participate in the services, but leave during the sermon for their own teaching time, returning to

participate in the Eucharist. Before they go, they come to the front and speak their own liturgy

after receiving a blessing, carrying a simpler cross before they exit. If I were a visiting child, I

would probably feel excluded from the group that had special ‘insider knowledge’.

Other forms in the life of the church include a weekday service that uses even more

traditional liturgy from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. A small sub-culture exists within St.

Andrew’s that seems to value this as a more pure form of Anglicanism, most of whom also

valued the older musical offerings that were in the previous traditional service, seeing that music

as “real music” that is being watered down by more contemporary offerings. The proper genre of

music is classical, and the proper vessel for this music is the choir. The choir has decreased in

numbers but also in its sole leadership role for special times of the year, such as Advent and

Lent.

In instituting this mid-week 1928 service, there may be an element of protest. A number

of families left over the change to one unified service, all from the more traditional group. Many

expressed to me their fears that important traditions to the life of the community are being lost.

The other main sub-culture wants to integrate newer cultural forms, especially within the

congregational singing. Many of these folks expressed disappointment at the inflexibility, and

frankly, the bad attitudes of the other group and fear that the church may become stuck in

irrelevance. This sub-group has also initiated a service; a monthly gathering time for extended
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worship and prayer. The worship is blended, but led in a contemporary style, and leads into

intercessory prayer.

According to Paul Alexander, “…the Western Church has been in protest for so long that

we no longer remember what we were protesting” (Church: Can We Stop Living in the 1500's?).

Though the term protest may conjure up negative images, it is really a cry of dissatisfaction with

things as they are, and a desire to either retain/enlarge or reject certain values within the

community.

c. Demographics

The church appears to be made up of mainly Anglo middle-class families. I don’t have

statistics, but my observation is that the largest group would be in the 60+ age range. There is a

Hispanic outreach detailed below, and some Hispanic children are a regular part of the church,

picked up by the church’s bus. In Versailles itself, Latinos are approximately 7% of the

population. Since a church plant approximately six years ago, the church has struggled to recover

numerically. At its high point, there was an attendance of well over 200. Now it seems closer to

100.

2. Theology

The official theology of the Anglican church has remained unchanged for hundreds of

years; The Bible as contained in the Old and New Testaments, the Nicene, Athanasian, and

Apostles Creeds, the seven historic Church Councils, and the thirty-nine Articles of Religion,

originally put forth in 1571. As a practical matter, however, what is actually believed finds its

expression in the culture itself. While we may believe that orthodox Christian belief allows for

all believers to have equal access to the presence of God, some of the cultural forms and
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expressions lead me to question this belief. Do we need certain people with certain training (and

raiment!) to intercede on our behalf with the divine? The priestly form may intend to point to a

higher reality, but in actuality theologizes hierarchy. Other cultural forms show vulnerability to a

type of hybridization/syncretism as well.

Another example of the form potentially prescribing rather than describing theology

relates to the Eucharist. As a sacrament, the Lord’s Supper has mystical possibilities for powerful

God encounters. This mysticism wonders at the depth of what God has provided through His

love and grace. Is it possible that the form that this sacrament takes can infer that doing the ritual

accomplishes the redemptive act? This moves the mystical into the magical.

This danger is probably always with every church because every church community is

bound by its own cultural forms and norms. When the truths of the Gospel are enculturated, they

will always take on the flavor of the receiving culture, either overtly or covertly. Hybridization

can be a cultural adaptation of the gospel that doesn’t change its essential truth but alllows for

new indigenous lenses to have an equal value to the lenses of the proclaiming culture. For

example, many Western Missionaries share a gospel that is framed by western assumptions and

logic that is not from the Bible but from Western culture. Hybridization can reach back and

illumine further those who already make up the body of Christ. Syncretism may occur when that

hybridization goes too far, and essential truths are distorted or changed (Shaw). This goes right

along with Wu’s understanding of the “implicit gospel” (77-85).

It is instructive to try to understand the organizing principles that make up the worldview

of St. Andrew’s Church. Using Wu’s questions, we can get a good start (78). 1. The fundamental

unit of society as expressed in the liturgy is probably the individual. Salvation is seen as an
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individual’s relatedness to God. Much of the liturgy is proclaimed corporately, but its implied

effect is for the individual’s redemption. 2. The basic nature of the world is reflective of much of

American culture – diversity and the individual’s rights are paramount. Much of the issues

causing division and strife at St. Andrew’s seem to have self-reference as their starting place. As

the old question goes, “Whose needs are being met?” 3. Identity at St. Andrew’s seems to have,

for many, a strong tie with historic Anglicanism and also the treasured traditions in this specific

congregation. Part of what is treasured here is a strong Biblically-based pulpit ministry. While

this is the norm in much of evangelicalism, it may be unique to the new evangelical American

Anglican movements, certainly including St. Andrew’s. Newcomers are welcome, but they are

more likely to be influenced than to influence. This is part of the ‘secret society’ vibe referenced

earlier. The well-established nature of beliefs can lend strength to the purposes of catechesis but

may be culturally distant to outsiders. 4. As for who is the highest authority, there is a decided

church polity in place. Though the Rector has the highest status, he must have the consensus of

the vestry (board). In terms of real power, certain long-standing families can wield quite a bit of

informal power through their protestations, gossiping, and opinion-swaying. All decisions end up

being weighed by potential fall-out that might be created. This can be fear-based rather than

faith-filled. 5. Because of its strong connection to the Eucharist, Anglican morality seems to be

especially focused on the substitutionary atonement theory. Much of what is praiseworthy

regarding the Lord has to do with His mighty act of Salvation in sending Jesus as the sacrificial

offering for all sin.

3. Mission

St. Andrew’s has a strong interest in cross-cultural missions, especially because of their

history with The Church of Uganda. They have strategic partnerships there that seem to have
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mutuality. Locally, the church has a thriving tutoring ministry to mostly Latino kids, called

Avanza – to advance. There is a strong relational component to this ministry and whole families

have been impacted and continue to be. Some Avanza kids have made their way into the

mainstream of church life, attending regularly. There is an addiction recovery program called

Freedom Road which is sponsored by St. Andrew’s but his held off-site. They offer their building

to community groups with generosity.

These are great aspects, but do they reflect Missio Dei? AS Bosch asserts, “It is not the

church which ‘undertakes’ mission; it is the Missio Dei which constitutes the church” (Kindle

Locations 12786-12787). Or put another way by Christopher Wright, “It is not so much the case

that God has a mission for his church in the world, as that God has a church for his mission in the

world. Mission was not made for the church; the church was made for mission – God’s mission”

(Wright).

4. Questions
a. What is the mission of St. Andrew’s? What is the target group? Is the target insiders

or outsiders or both?
b. How does this relate to the concept of Missio Dei?
c. As changes are made, how do they relate to the mission?
d. Are the meanings behind cultural forms in worship universally understood? Are they

understood rightly?
e. How can biblical unity be maintained in the midst of diverse and strong opinions at

St. Andrew’s?
f. How does the leadership view the congregation at large and vice versa?

5. Recommendations
a. Pray for a prayer movement for unity and renewal. Provide regular opportunities for

corporate intercessory prayer outside of the normal church services.

b. Revisit the mission of the church. What has God called St. Andrew’s to be and do?

Evaluate strong personal preferences in the light of Missio Dei. Present and
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demonstrate this in every way possible with the goal that all congregants will know

and understand it thoroughly.

c. Examine cultural forms of worship for their intended meanings. Do any forms need to

be adapted to better communicate? Do some need to be abandoned and new ones

used? Find creative ways to communicate what liturgical rituals and worship forms

mean on a regular basis.

d. Develop public ministry that is much more accessible to ‘outsiders’. This could mean

moving the morning worship in that direction, or something additional.

e. Pray some more!
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References

TheAdvocateMag. “Bishop to Defrock Three Priests Who Opposed Gay Clergy Ordination
(15065).” ADVOCATE, Advocate.com, 8 Feb. 2005,
https://www.advocate.com/news/2005/02/08/bishop-defrock-three-priests-who-opposed-gay-
clergy-ordination-15065.

Bosch, David J. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (20th

Anniversary Edition) (American Society of Missiology). Orbis Books. Kindle Edition.

Elliott, Dr. Stephen. interview, August 17, 2019

Fosner, Verlon, “Church: Can We Stop Living in the 1500's? #AlwaysReforming.” Missio
Alliance, 14 Nov. 2017, quoting Paul Alexander, www.missioalliance.org/no-longer-need-
reformation-era-church-alwaysreforming/.

Harris, Mark. “Contending with Anglican Realignment - by Mark Harris: VirtueOnline – The
Voice for Global Orthodox Anglicanism.” VirtueOnline, https://virtueonline.org/contending-
anglican-realignment-mark-harris.

Shaw, R. Daniel. “Beyond Syncretism: A Dynamic Approach to Hybridity.” International

Bulletin of Mission Research, vol. 42, no. 1, 2017, pp. 6–19.

Wright, Christopher J. H. The Mission of Gods People: a Biblical Theology of the Church’s
Mission. Zondervan, 2010.

Wu, Jackson. One Gospel for All Nations: a Practical Approach to Biblical Contextualization.
William Carey Library, 2015.