The Episcopal Church in the Unites States of America was suffering a crisis of leadership and faith in the 2000’s. Theological liberals dominated the leadership nationally, and they were intent on veering away from the historically orthodox views held by the vast majority of Anglicans around the globe. Many conservative Episcopal priest began to talk about breaking away and forming an orthodox Anglican expression that would be focused on the 130 million unchurched people in North America. The first group to actually break away was courageously led by the Reverend Mark DiCristina, then rector of St. Francis Episcopal Church in Gulf Breeze, Florida. Father Mark resigned his position and ordination with the Episcopal Church and approximately 120 parishioners joined him to form Church of the Messiah.

Soon after, Archbishops Emmanuel Kolini of Rwanda and Moses Tay of S. E. Asia grew increasingly disturbed about the crisis as well as those faithful Episcopalians who sought intervention from the wider Communion. They responded by consecrating Chuck Murphy and John Rodgers as bishops at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, Singapore, on January 29, 2000. At the time of their consecrations, those orthodox leaders within the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion strongly advocated a strategy (working within the Episcopal Church and Anglican Communion’s existing structures) and were highly critical of the Anglican Mission and the Provinces of Rwanda and S. E. Asia. But, it became clear to virtually everyone that the strategy of having clergy and bishops canonically resident offshore, but released to mission in the U.S., was the way forward.

Mark DiChristino took a courageous step in protest of the increasingly theologically liberal direction the Episcopal Church in the United States was moving. He resigned as pastor and as an Episcopal Priest. – In the tremendous wake of Hurricane Ivan, The Church of the Messiah and its people and pastor were completely devastated, physically, emotionally, and spiritually drained. The Rev. Mark DiCristina had left the pastorate to care for his family in the loss of their home in Gulf Breeze, and The Rev. Ron Browning, Rocky Mountain AMIA Network leader in Denver and a trained church analyst, was asked by some of our bishops to come to Gulf Breeze and take a look at the remnant of Church of the Messiah to see if it could be salvaged.

Fr. Ron came down to Florida in December, 2004 and met with the church leadership for a couple of days. On Saturday evening, his wife Lisa joined him in Pensacola (with family here, it was to be a couple of days of family time except for the Sunday church service in Gulf Breeze). On Sunday morning, Fr. Ron celebrated the Eucharist in the Church of the Messiah in the strip mall location. There were about 35 people in attendance, and following the service, Fr. Ron facilitated a meeting with the parishioners in which he outlined his analysis and listed the conditions under which Church of the Messiah might be able to continue as a church. These included raising a substantial amount of money; moving the church from the strip mall in Gulf Breeze across the bridge to downtown Pensacola; restructuring the church bylaws; changing the church name to one more recognizable as a Christian church since many seemed to think at first glance that Church of the Messiah was a Jewish congregation. These were hard things for him to tell this eager group. In response, the parishioners had some tough questions for Fr. Ron like what could be done for the children and youth in the church? Why was it necessary to move across the bridge when so many of the parishioners lived in Gulf Breeze? What was wrong with the church name? And perhaps the most difficult question of all . . . will you come and be our pastor?

Fr. Ron and Lisa were fairly entrenched in Denver, with Ron and Bishop Sandy Greene leading Anglican Church of the Spirit (ACTS) and Lisa having gotten a school administration job she loved. They really had no intention of moving at that time, and Fr. Ron frankly did not think that the small group in Gulf Breeze would be up for meeting all the needs to give the church a fighting chance of survival. Ron and Lisa returned to Denver, thinking that the church analysis was complete.

Nevertheless, about two weeks after they returned home, Fr. Ron got a call from one of the church leaders in Pensacola who said, “OK, we did all those things you listed. NOW will you come?” Well, many things began happening quickly. Ron spoke with several of our AMIA bishops about the possibility of moving . . . after all, he and Lisa had always wanted to get back down South at some point. In February, 2005, Fr. Ron said goodbye to his parish in Colorado and came to Gulf Breeze. Lisa remained in Denver to finish her school year contract at the end of June.

On March 27, 2005, Easter Sunday, after a difficult and poorly attended Holy Week, Fr. Ron celebrated Easter Eucharist with 58 people in attendance. On April 3, the church completed the voting that changed the name of the church from Church of the Messiah to Holy Trinity Anglican Church. On April 24, there was a meeting to make some decisions about how to proceed with children’s ministries. During all this time since December, Fr. Ron, Bill Goliwas and others were working to find and purchase a building in Pensacola. The current location at 609 N. Alcaniz Street was the choice. The building had been unused for several years as either a church or a funeral home, and was in much disrepair. In fact, at the time of purchase, there were several migrant workers being housed in the basement while here doing hurricane repairs in the area. HTAC was scheduled to hold its first meeting in the new location, after much “sweat equity” in the previous 6 months. On Sunday, July 10; however, a hurricane warning forced cancellation of the service, and the congregation did not hold its first meeting in Pensacola until Sunday, July 17, 2005. There were 65 people in attendance. The next two Sundays saw attendance rise to 71 and then 93 . . . we were on our way.

On Friday, August 12, with Bishop Sandy Greene in attendance, we hosted a candlelight worship service with 100 people in attendance, as Kirk and Debbie Dearman gave a concert of praise music. The next day, we hosted a parking lot carnival with games, food, tours of the church building, and much anticipation of the coming service on Sunday. Holy Trinity Anglican Church was officially consecrated by The Rt. Rev. Sandy Greene at services on Sunday, August 14, 2005 with 121 in attendance. Also during that summer, HTAC brought Jennie Brummet on board as children’s pastor and Patty Legendre served as interim youth pastor, even taking a group of our kids to Disneyworld for the Night of Joy in September that first year. Soon, Brent Brummet came on board as youth pastor, relieving Patty after her months of faithful service, “filling the gap.”

For our first anniversary, we had 155 in attendance and things were beginning to come together much more smoothly. During the first year and a half, HTAC hosted several special events, including our first Vacation Bible School, a concert by early contemporary Christian artist Matthew Ward (whose daughter and son-in-law were members at HTAC), a community health fair, and a neighborhood Fall Festival, complete with parishioner Mark Houston’s band, Miles from Coltrane, playing a concert on that warm fall evening.

Each year since 2005, our church has attended parish-wide Family Camp one weekend in the early fall. In the first two years, Family Camp was at Camp Beckwith near Fairhope, but has since been moved to Camp Baldwin in Elberta, Alabama, for better facilities and more cost-effectiveness. In 2006, we began Wednesday evening Destination Discipleship meetings, with a family meal followed by children, youth and adult classes at the church. This was part of the Connections Team ministries, which at the time was headed by Kathleen Mooney. The Connections Team has since been restructured as the church has grown to better meet needs and is now primarily housed under Body Builders Ministries. But, Destination Discipleship has continued on Wednesday evenings. We now take a summer break for DD, but popular demand has restarted it each fall. We are fortunate to have Stephen Smithee and his kitchen crew who faithfully provide meals each week for only $5 a person.

In summer of 2007, a group from HTAC traveled to Rwanda with Dan and Marcia Holland leading the excursion. On their return, we held a CELEBRATE RWANDA evening in which the returning mission team shared their amazing experiences and photos from the trip. It was at this time that our sister church relationship with Murambi Church was born, and Fr. Japhet Ndoriyobijyah, the pastor at Murambi, visited HTAC for the first time on January 13, 2008. The next month, we were blessed with a visit from Bishop Josias and his wife, Dorothy, from Rwanda.

It was in 2008, as well, that Easter saw an amazing 282 worshipping together at HTAC. It was clear that the church needed to begin planning for a larger church. Changes were made in staffing and in the structure of our ministry teams so that more were involved and less of the ministries rested solely with Fr. Ron. New leaders emerged. We had ordained two men as deacons (Glen Miley and Brent Brummet), and another deacon, Bill Radcliffe, and his family had become part of the church family. Our leadership approved a name change in 2009 to simply THE MISSION Anglican Church as we refocused our attention on our mission, reaching the unchurched in our community and at the same time, ensuring the discipleship and growth of those already in our parish. In September 2009, we launched our first church plant in Cantonment, with The Rev. Mark Brown as church plant pastor. The plant was not successful and was discontinued after about three months with mutual agreement between our Bishop, our vestry, Fr. Mark and Fr. Ron. We learned much from this endeavor and are committed to planting new churches when God tells us the time is right.

Fr. Ron and the vestry of TMAC have recast our vision, as is required in any organization, and are focusing on building viable and personal relationship with Jesus Christ and fueling passion for His Word and its practicality in our daily lives. 2009 was a difficult year for our church, as every single one of our clergy and their families endured great hardships of various kinds . . . a very strategic spiritual attack on our church. Since that time, the leadership of TMAC has committed to regular prayer for personal and corporate renewal, a new infilling of the Holy Spirit across the parish.

In 2015, The Mission voted to join the Anglican Churches in North America (ACNA) and more specifically the Diocese of Churches for the Sake of Others (C4SO) under the Bishopric of Bishop Tod Hunter. From 2016 to 2019, Father Ron Served as the Dean of the Southeast under Bishop Hunter.

We are now a parish within the Gulf Atlantic Diocese of the ACNA. We have recently called Fr. Steve Abbott as our new associate priest and we are excited for the way forward. We know that as a church grows and forms its own “DNA,” some will no doubt find that TMAC is not a good personal fit for them. Others will be spurred into ministry at TMAC by a new awakening in their spirit. New believers will come and be nourished along. Children and youth will discover their own relationships with Jesus. Questions will be posed and answered. Others, we will wrestle with daily. But, the love we have for Jesus Christ and for each other is ever present, as we move forward, with Christ in the lead, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit and thankful for Jesus’ Sacrifice that saved us all.