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
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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-
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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.”