My name is Roy Robison and my wife’s name is Caryle. What follows is totally our opinion, our observations, and our perceptions of what has occurred at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Peachtree City over the past few weeks.

My wife and I first joined St. Andrew’s in 1981. The church building was little more than a big box set in a lovely location at the corner of Stevens Entry and Peachtree Parkway. What the building lacked in aesthetics was more than made up for by the wonderful people who made up the parish of St. Andrew’s.

In the 26 years that followed, those wonderful people worked together to build a strong and healthy bastion of Christian unity. The original structure was transformed into the existing beautiful church building it is today; the property was groomed, and a new parish hall was completed just this past year. All this, and more (much more) happened because the parishioners at St. Andrew’s worked and acted as a Christian family unit.

About three years ago, the Episcopal Church in the United States (ECUSA) made some decisions that were contrary to the thinking and beliefs of most of the parishioners at St. Andrew’s (including Caryle and me). Almost immediately, a movement began to separate our parish from the ECUSA Diocese of Atlanta and to join a diocese that more reflected an Anglican doctrine.

That movement came to fruition about six weeks ago when 68 percent of parishioners attending a parish meeting voted that they were in favor of separating themselves from ECUSA. The very next day they did.

Caryle and I elected to stay at St. Andrew’s. Why? First of all, we felt that the St. Andrew’s vestry (the elected governing body at St. Andrew’s) mislead parishioners by stating that the vote (which had only two alternatives) was to give the vestry members an “idea” of how the parish felt about the issue. In our opinion, it was not meant to be an authorization to abandon nearly 30 years of parish life, love, work and worship.

Secondly, the vestry presented, as part of their argument, many half-truths regarding the doctrine and beliefs of ECUSA. Suffice to say that in most instances, the examples cited turned out to be various individual’s exercising their own perceptions and not the beliefs or actions of the church itself.

Unbeknownst to us, for many years, the vestry had made it clear to the Bishop of the Atlanta Diocese that he was not welcome at St. Andrew’s. After the separation, those parishioners who had elected to remain within the Episcopal Church were finally able to meet with the Bishop, at another location, to get some clear and straight-forward answers to questions regarding the very issues that led up to the separation.

At the meeting’s end, Caryle and I concluded that the Bishop’s meeting was three years overdue.

We still do not concur with all the actions taken by ECUSA nor do we necessarily support the direction that the organization is moving towards, but what we do know is this: nothing will prevent us from worshiping our Savior in the church we helped build; we will make a stand here at St. Andrew’s and do all we can to see it retains its Anglican beliefs and form of worship; and most importantly, ECUSA’s actions do not affect our worship or belief in Jesus Christ.

Caryle and I believe that battles are not won by abandoning the objective. We believe that had the parish remained united, St. Andrew’s would never have lost its identity as a conservative and united Anglican parish. Its very existence could have been a light to all churches within the Episcopal Church (or any church) that beliefs and worship cannot be dictated, and that by staying together and worshiping together we can overcome contrary doctrines and any mandate to worship otherwise.

Instead, we now have two separate struggling churches, both with the same beliefs that, in the final analysis, have, so to speak, cut off their noses to spite their faces.

It’s not too late to reunite. After all, ECUSA is still part of the Anglican Communion. Let’s not abandon all that we have achieved these past many years. Let us be an example to “all” that nothing can come between us and the way we chose to worship Jesus Christ.

Roy and Caryle Robison

Peachtree City, Ga.

login to post comments