After lengthy search church welcomes one of its own as priest

BY CHRISTIE STORM

Posted on Saturday, May 3, 2008

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SILOAM SPRINGS — Twenty-one months, 13 days.

Mary Benjamin knows exactly how long her church was without a priest of its own, almost down to the minutes.

So when the Right Rev. Larry Benfield, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas, sent word that a priest had been appointed, it was cause for celebration. That he was a fellow parishioner made it that much sweeter.

“It was such a surprise,” Benjamin said.

The Rev. Stan McKinnon was appointed as vicar of Grace Episcopal Church during a ceremony in April. McKinnon had been a parishioner for several years and for the past two years had been working toward ordination as an Episcopal priest. But neither he nor the congregation thought they would end up together.

During the past six years, McKinnon said, the church has had its own priest for only 21 months. The rest of the time they’ve relied on help from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fayetteville, and on one another.

The church started small, with only a handful of worshippers, and was formally established in 1976. They began meeting at St. Mary Catholic Church.

Benjamin moved to Siloam Springs in 1975 and attended a worship service.

“There were seven people besides me,” she said.

She was sure her husband, George, would seek a bigger church, but she was wrong and the family quickly committed their time to the new congregation.

The small group soon blossomed and the following year 26 members signed the charter to establish the new church. They continued to meet at the Catholic church until a small building on Mount Olive Street was completed in 1979. They had a home of their own, and a priest — the Rev. C. Frederick Barbee. And they were growing.

That early sense of stability, however, has been shaken many times during the years, as the congregation was left to rely on neighboring parishes for priestly duties. Even when they had a priest of their own, the church often shared their clergy with other parishes.

The latest drought was the hardest.

In the Episcopal Church, congregations choose their own clergy, with final approval and appointment coming from the bishop. When a vacancy occurs, it’s up to the vestry, or governing body, of the congregation to find a replacement. The exception is mission congregations, like Grace. The bishop has more control when appointing a priest to a mission, but usually does so with input from the congregation. Grace’s vestry was searching, but hadn’t found a match.

“Our saving grace was St. Paul’s,” Benjamin said. “If we didn’t have that help we wouldn’t have survived, but it’s not a good way to grow a church.” The church had been growing, with attendance averaging 80 each week, but as the vacancy stretched on the numbers began to slowly decline.

The Rev. Chuck Walling, an associate priest at St. Paul’s, filled in as a supply pastor, traveling from Fayetteville to Siloam Springs for Sunday services. He also helped in emergencies.

The day-to-day ministry, however, was left in the hands of parishioners. If someone was sick, volunteers pitched in to help. They helped plan funerals. Lay members made sure outreach efforts continued and teachers were available for educational programs. Without a priest of their own to manage pastoral care, that often fell to parishioners as well.

“Grace Church has very strong lay leadership,” said parishioner Ben Hill. “It’s always helped us get through.” Benjamin said the congregation pulled together to make it work.

“In illness or marriage difficulties or baptism, we just pulled it off, but it was difficult.... It was stressful,” she said.

By last summer a feeling of malaise had taken hold. The deacon was gone, their priest had long since moved to Newport, and when the music program took a summer hiatus, spirits fell even further.

“There was a vacancy fatigue and when it hit I felt it very strongly,” Hill said. “It was looking a little bleak.” Jessie Moore, one of the church’s founding members, felt the fatigue, too. She felt that something had to change. They needed a priest.

“We did have priests,” she said. “But they just weren’t ours.” McKinnon, who was working toward ordination at the time, also sensed the congregation had “hit the wall.” “I think they did. I think our supply priest did, as well,” he said. “Everybody was tired, but the people are remarkably strong.” McKinnon credits Benjamin with keeping the church together.

“She acted in a priestly role to connect us and keep us going,” he said.

They survived the summer and although they didn’t know it at the time, the fall would bring good news.

The vestry had continued interviewing candidates for the priest’s vacancy. Even though McKinnon was to be ordained, he already had a job in ministry, as chaplain at John Brown University.

“We were told not to shoulder Stan with ministry here because he was full time at JBU,” Benjamin said.

McKinnon had been in the position since 1999, originally as an ordained United Methodist minister. After finding Grace Church, however, he found he felt more at home in the Episcopal Church. He left the Methodist church and began working to become an Episcopal priest. After two years of study he was ordained in June, and he intended to remain the chaplain at JBU.

But by the fall McKinnon said he felt the call to pastoral ministry. He wanted to serve a church, so he talked with Bishop Benfield about the possibility of being appointed to a church in a few years.

“I told him... I’d like to be placed in a local congregation, that I felt called to this priestly duty,” McKinnon said. “He said, ‘ Why don’t you consider taking Grace ?’” McKinnon hadn’t even considered Grace Church as an option, because appointing a priest to his home church is rare. But McKinnon said he had no hesitation about accepting the appointment. He worked out a compromise with JBU to work until the end of the school year in May, giving one quarter of his time to Grace until then.

In the meantime, the congregation was unaware of what was happening.

“We didn’t have a clue,” Benjamin said. The news came during the fall stewardship banquet. A former parishioner, the Rev. Scott Walters, priest at Christ Episcopal Church in Little Rock, read a letter from the bishop announcing McKinnon’s appointment. “The room exploded,” McKinnon said. Finally, Benjamin could stop counting the days. Since the announcement, some members have returned to church, and McKinnon said there’s a sense of excitement and anticipation. As for McKinnon, he said he has found where he belongs. “I tell people it’s like Christmas every morning. This is what I’m made for.” Grace Episcopal Church is at 617 N. Mount Olive St. Worship services are at 10 a.m. Sundays, followed by Christian education at 11: 20. Information is available by calling (479 ) 524-8782 or online at www. gracesiloam. org

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