St. Barnabas celebrates 40 years in the community

Rev. John Pafford at a
home worship service

Parishioners at St. Barnabas Anglican Church in Shoreline celebrated the 40th anniversary of the parish at 2340 N 155th St this fall.

St. Barnabas Anglican Church was established in 1972 by local residents who attended St. Paul’s Anglican Catholic Church in Bellevue, but wanted a parish that was closer to them.

Fr. John Hamers in 1976 in the newly constructed
church in Shoreline

Their goal – today still a primary focus at St. Barnabas – was a parish that perpetuates the best of the rich Anglican theological and liturgical traditions, including use of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

Rev. (later Bishop) John Pafford, rector of St. Paul’s, visited once a month to celebrate Holy Communion. Deacon Enright Lorenz conducted weekly worship services.

The nave of the newly constructed church. 1976

Later that year, John Hamers, one of the original six, was ordained to the Diaconate and promptly called as minister-in-charge of St. Barnabas. (Deacon Hamers would become a priest and then bishop.)

Services were initially held in the chapels of two local mortuaries and, in 1974, the Vestry began looking for a permanent location north of the Ship Canal and west of Lake Washington.

Fr. Hamers drove several times past by a vacant lot on N. 155th St. –  overgrown by blackberry brambles, with a horse kept by children in a makeshift stall well in the back – before considering this location.

Bishop Kevin Bond Allen, Diocese of Cascadia;
Anglican Archbishop Stephen of Myanmar;
 Fr. Harley Crain, Rector of St. Barnabas Anglican Church;
unidentified parishioner

The Vestry negotiated a price of $10,500. But after a $500 earnest money deposit, Providence intervened and they were able to offer the property owner $9,000 in cash, which he accepted – saving the church $1,000.

Odgers Construction Co. of Lake City built the church shell for $42,000 after St. Barnabas got a $30,000 loan at a time most lenders were loaning to churches. The congregation committed to do all interior finish work.

Bishop Richard Boyce
retired in 2011
Photo by Barbara Kinney

The land was cleared and, after a groundbreaking ceremony, construction began immediately. The necessary additional funds materialized in the form of internal bonds to parishioners and friends of the church.

Once the walls were erected, a concrete cornerstone was laid under the floor where the altar currently stands. The stone encased a Bible, a 1928 Prayer Book, and a membership roster.

The first service in St. Barnabas was held on Trinity Sunday, 1976.

Fr. Harley Crain was installed as rector in 2005 under the Bishop Richard Boyce. Bp. Boyce retired last year and was succeeded by the Rev. Kevin Bond Allen as bishop of the newly formed Diocese of Cascadia, Anglican Church of North America.

“Over the last seven years we have, as a congregation, grown more committed to our traditional liturgy and practice as the secular incursion into religious practice has become more pressing,” says Fr. Crain. 

“Our 1928 Book of Common Prayer heritage is important to our core identity, along with organ-based 1940-hymnal congregational singing, and our Matins (Morning Prayer)/Eucharist service."

A parishioner at Nigerian Sunday

St. Barnabas has had missionary ties with Nigeria and The Philippines. Nigerian Sunday at St. Barnabas each summer celebrates the rich traditions of Nigerian Anglicans in the Seattle area.

A local church mission has reached out to the memory care dementia facility near the church, and the congregation provides Thanksgiving meals to five families at Parkwood Elementary School every year.

Archbishop Stephen of Myanmar
Bishop Kevin Bond Allen
2012

Another outreach adopted by the congregation is an annual caravan to Mary's Place in downtown Seattle to join them for Santa's visit and their Christmas party, bringing gifts for the children and cosmetics, and personal care items for all members of Mary's Place.

And a new outreach mission is being planned at St. Barnabas to serve “a population often forgotten by the organized church,” Fr. Harley adds, “to meet the spiritual and community needs of physically and mentally ‘differently abled’ members of our community.”