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Heppner Gazette-Times, Heppner, Oregon Wednesday, May 30, 2018 - SEVEN Two churches come together for new beginning Lutherans and Episcopalians blend as Hopeful Saints Long-time Lutherans Duane and Robanai Disque at Hope Episcopal meets Lutheran. Episcopal Bishop Rt. Rev. Patrick Lutheran Church in Heppner. Bell meets with Hopeful Saints Pastor Rev. Katy Anderson. By David Sykes Editor ’s note: The Lutheran and Episcopal Churches in Heppner have come together to form a new congregation called Hopeful Saints. The Ga- zette-Times recently sat down with members of each denomination and talked about the change and with the minister who will lead them in this new and unique endeavor. Twenty years ago, news wasn’t good for either Hope Lutheran or All Saints Epis- copal Churches in Heppner. Attendance was down, giv- ing had declined and it was becoming harder and harder to find priests. The pews were not as full, the pledges not as abundant and the resources to pay for full-time ministers becom- ing scarcer by the month. Both churches were ex- periencing declines in the health and vitality of their congregations. And, to be expected, both churches had the same thoughts. Was it time to give up and accept their fate? Maybe think about having a church without a pastor? Or maybe they could use declining memberships nation-wide as an excuse to just give up and do nothing? But the strong-willed people of both congregations decided to have none of that, and instead came up with a plan of survival. “I was on the Vestry (the Episcopal church governing council) at the time,” long- time Episcopalian Merilee McDowell recalled. “Our pastor, Al Miller, was leav- ing, and even then, he lived in Hermiston and was com- muting back and forth for services.” The church was feeling “strained finan- cially” and everyone was wondering what to do. It was hard to find replace- ment priests and, without adequate finances, it was difficult to attract priests to small communities, she says. That’s when the Vestry began discussing contacting the Lutheran Church to see if they would share their pastor. “We talked and talk- ed and finally, I said let’s just do it,” and she picked up the phone and called the Lutheran minister, Dick Metz, broaching with him the idea of sharing his ser- vices with both churches. “We wanted to find out if they were interested,” McDowell says. And were they? “We were excited by the idea,” she recalls with a smile. “Them not so much.” Merilee said the two church governing councils met several times and talked about sharing the Lutheran minister, but agreed the idea had “to go to the higher ups and see if it was ok.” “We ended up getting approval from the Diocese (Epis- copalian governing body) and the Synod (Lutheran),” remembers Bill McDowell, also a long-time member and current senior warden (head of the Vestry). From then, over the years the two churches slowly merged, switching weekly services back and forth between the two church buildings in Heppner, and next seeing members of one church beginning to help with the services of the other. “We just started doing more and more things together,” recalls Bill. On the Lutheran side, long-time church members Duane and Robanai Disque recall their struggles and also feeling the strain of a shrinking congregation and reduced finances. “We realized we were not going to survive alone,” Robanai says. At the time there was another Lutheran Church at Valby but even that was not enough to sustain them. She remembers starting to share their minister with the Epis- copalians. A shared youth group was also started be- tween the two churches and including children was very important in Robanai’s family. Remembering the be- ginning and the switching weekly services back and forth between two build- ings, Robanai says some Lutherans would only at- tend when it was in “their” church, and some Epis- copalians only at theirs. Duane says although he was not that involved in the details of the initial begin- nings of the merger, he does remember the financials looking grim and knowing something had to be done for them to survive and worship here in Heppner. “Now I feel good about it. We still have our struggles, but it’s nice to come and see more people in church. See young members here too,” he says. There were, and still are, uncertainties in merg- ing the two denominations into one. Choosing a re- ligion is a very personal decision and an important concern from both sides was losing “identity.” “So yes, we were afraid of los- ing our identity. But then the more we came together the more we realized how much in common we have with each other,” says Ro- banai. “We find we are both willing to honor our differences.” She says her children have grown up in the shared ministry of the two churches and “don’t know any other way. They are very comfortable with it,” she says. After years of sharing ministers, switching build- ings and generally getting to know one another, the two congregations lately made several big decisions in the past few years. First, members came to realize they were forming a new church. So, they needed a name for this new church and finally settled on Hope- ful Saints. Moving day…. Episcopalians and Lutherans have a big move coming Sunday, June 3. The two congregations plan on moving many items from the Lutheran Church building into the Episcopal Church building, which will now to be called Hopeful Saints Church. The congregations voted recently to pick the Epis- copal building to permanently hold church services every Sunday. Worshippers had been switching back and forth between the two churches. The two groups have been in a merger process that began 20 years ago (see related story Two churches come together for new beginning). Part way through this Sunday’s service, members will gather up as much as can be carried and trans- ported, such as hymnals, altar books, processional crosses, banners, etc. and have a procession on foot, by car and senior bus to the All Saints Church building where the service will conclude. Although the congregation decided to move its Sunday services to the Episcopal building, the Lutheran church building will still be used for bible studies, spe- cial services and vacation bible school. Sunday church services will, however, now be held every week in the Episcopal building. ed any major disagreements on finances. The next big decision was the building. After all, each church building is considered home and over many years becomes famil- iar to each congregation. The question facing the new Hopeful Saints was: should they continue the weekly switch back and forth? Or should they choose one church building over the other? The decision was always on people’s minds and was the “elephant in the room” during most discus- sions on the direction of the new church. The building was not dealt with directly until several weeks ago at a well-attended church meet- ing, when it finally came out in the open and a vote was taken. People had been thinking about it and made up their minds. The vote was unanimous to move the services permanently to the Episcopal building. It was also agreed there will be changes made inside the building to incorporate symbols and significant other things to make it familiar and like home for everyone. (See related 308 E Gladys Ave Hermiston, OR 97838 Office: 541-564-5900 hermistonhomeloansrus.com Kim Arbogast Sales Manager NMLS # 230847 arbogast@fairwaymc.com Then, as with any new relationship, what to do with the money could be a sticky situation. The two churches have not com- pletely merged their financ- es, but are getting closer. Each church still maintains its own bank account, but a couple of years ago it was agreed to set up a new bank account with a sepa- rate set of books especially for Hopeful Saints. Both churches contribute funds into the new accounting system to pay the bills and take care of other expenses. So far they have also avoid- Meghan Kae Golden Loan Officer NMLS # 573302 meghan.golden@fairwaymc.com Copyright©2018 Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation. NMLS#2289. 4750 S. Biltmore Lane, Madison, WI 53718, 1-877-699-0353. Other restrictions and limitations may apply. All rights reserved. Moving Day article). “That we agree to phys- ically move in together is important,” says Robanai, “but where we have our Christian fellowship is not as important as having that fellowship and our com- mitment to God and our faith. Choosing one of the buildings shows that we can grow as Christians,” she says. “I feel good about the decision,” says Merilee. “No one was coerced and people were ready.” Bill agrees and says to make the building into the new Hope- ful Saints, there needs to be changes made, like perhaps putting up familiar items from both churches. A third party in this church family, however, are those who came to the church after the merger was well underway and have never known anything ex- cept Hopeful Saints. Cody and Nichole High are one of those families. “We started coming to church on Easter of 2016,” Cody recalls. “It was easy for us to come here because we didn’t feel like it was two different churches. When we came things were already very well blended,” he says. “We like the feeling of commu- nity here,” adds Nichole. “It felt like extended family to us.” Cody says he thinks any difficulty with the move into one building can be overcome. “We can transfer things from Hope over to here, do some painting and changes if need be. I think problems can be overcome, but Hopeful Saints needs to be its own. When we come in here I want this new church to have its own iden- Cody and Nichole High came to Hopeful Saints with their children Emery (on Nichole’s lap) and Keeley. Bill and Merilee McDowell at the Episcopal church building in Heppner soon to be named Hopeful Saints. tity,” he says optimistically. “It’s like a blended family,” adds Nichole. One good example of how the two denomina- tions can come together is when Cody and Nichole’s child was baptized. “Katy (the minister) came to us, opened up both baptis- mal services from the two churches and said, ‘choose one’. So, we chose the Epis- copal, but she was baptized in the Lutheran Church. We liked that symbolism,” Cody says. “An Episcopal baptism in the Lutheran Church.” We felt very wel- comed here, especially with our small children,” he says of Hopeful Saints. “It’s like a home away from home,” adds Nichole. A church has finances, buildings, symbols and tradition, but importantly it also has its liturgy, weekly services and music. Guid- ing this blended family on its new path of worship is The Rev. Katy Ander- son, now to be known as Hopeful Saints Pastor. A fourth-generation Lutheran Minister, you might think Pastor Katy would have some trepidation in this new venture, but, on the contrary, she seems eager to proceed. Moving easily between the two religions she looks forward to com- ing up with a blended ser- vice incorporating parts of each faith. “There are many similarities,” she says of the two churches. “Both have roots in the Catho- lic Church. Luther was a Catholic monk. Both have elements that go back to the Catholic Church.” A graduate of Pacif- ic Lutheran Theological Seminary, Pastor Katy also points out some of the dif- ferences between the two churches. “Some Episco- palians are very Catholic in their beliefs and some are more protestant,” she points out. “Lutherans are more consistently prot- estant.” One of the of the major differences is that Lu- therans are more doctrine oriented and new members are taught specific tenants of the faith, with traditions being more important for them. Pastor Katy, who came to pastor the local Lutheran Church in 2008, says bap- tism and communion are important to both church- es, however the Lutherans don’t do breaking of the bread as Episcopalians do. And she says some per- ceived major differences are only regional and not de- nomination-wide. Kneeling for prayer is common in the local Episcopal Church but not in the local Lutheran. The same with a common wine cup during commu- nion, which is done in the local Episcopal Church but is a regional Lutheran preference and not neces- sarily church-wide. Another difference is the Lutheran church does not believe in the concepts of Apos- tolic Succession (laying on of hands from Bishop to Bishop all the way back to the Apostles makes a valid ordination). These differ- ences, however, have not stopped the two congrega- tions from worshipping successfully together for many years now and Katy says she sees no major problems going forward. “We worship quite well together,” she points out. But how do the larger church organizations feel about two of their congre- gations combining? “They have been very flexible,” Pastor Katy says, and, in fact, the Eastern Oregon Episcopal Bishop was in Heppner recently to lead a discussion about the meld- ing of the two churches. He was also present when the congregation voted to choose the Episcopal Church building as the new church’s permanent home. The effort to combine the two congregations into one new church was com- pletely a local grass roots effort and did not involve guidance or direction from either of the church’s higher leadership. Given the fall- ing memberships across the US, many small churches are having identical prob- lems as these. Pastor Katy says other churches are now trying mergers, as in Sun- river, Madras and Burns, where the Lutherans and Episcopalians are combin- ing, and in Hood River where the Methodists and the Lutherans are trying it. Heppner, however, was one of the first. With her experience Pastor Katy says she has spoken about the merger to the regional assembly in Pendleton and to the LaGrande church. She also received calls from churches in San Fran- cisco and Michigan asking: “How did you put this to- gether?” Robanai also has been asked about it at the Lutheran Church’s annual meetings. The two denominations are now in the process of putting together a legal memorandum of under- standing to guide the tem- poral affairs of their new relationship. But members of both churches seem con- fident and eager to work through any future prob- lems and will continue to move forward together as members of one new church, named Hopeful Saints. “We had to do some- thing,” says Robanai. “Our doors would have been closed by now, and that would be sad for me.”
