Fresh start: Anglican church starts in home’s basement

By Dave Thompson
June 13, 2008

It’s 10 a.m. on Sunday as Father James Hutchison prepares for his usual Sunday service — only his third as an ordained priest — at St. Barnabas Anglican Church.

As he repositions his vestments and looks over his lessons, his wife Christine eyeballs his stole. She makes adjustments so the garment lies straight around the back of his neck and the ends are even in front.

Since January, the Lynchburg church has been meeting in the basement chapel in the Leewood Drive home of Phillip Weeks, retired bishop.

Mounted pictures of each of the Stations of the Cross line the walls of the 10-foot by 20-foot chapel, which seats about 25 people.

“The church originally met in homes,” Weeks muses about ancient church history.

“Sometimes they met in catacombs,” he adds. the rest