Denomination: Anglican Church
We are one church that is both fully Lutheran and fully Anglican. Our worship is a combination of the best of both traditions, thereby allowing us to speak God’s message with clarity and meaning for long-time Anglicans and Lutherans, visitors and seekers, alike. Our service in the community is passionate, diverse, and is stronger for having chosen to journey together.
In the year 2001, the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada entered into the Waterloo Accord, a covenant offering a way forward with our two denominations in full communion. Full communion means we share our resources as fully as possible so that God’s work can better be accomplished.
St. David’s Anglican church and Holy Cross Lutheran mission had been living out the Waterloo Accord in the city of Orillia for many years - worshiping together on special occasions, offering programs together, and sharing in pieces of local outreach.
However, at the beginning of 2008, we began to consider whether there was more that God was calling us to do. After many prayerful conversations, a vote was held, and the two congregations decided to become one. Holy Cross had been renting space from another Anglican church in town, so the choice of building was easy.
That spring, we began worshiping together in the building previously known as St. David’s Anglican church. Momentum, joy, and a sense of God’s infinite possibility has only been growing since then, and our worship is now a smooth blending of both traditions. Although we have both an Anglican priest and a Lutheran deaconess on staff, both clergy and congregation alike are fully steeped in one another’s ministries, to the point that definitions of ‘who is Lutheran’ or ‘who is Anglican’ are irrelevant.
In the year 2001, the Anglican Church of Canada and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada entered into the Waterloo Accord, a covenant offering a way forward with our two denominations in full communion. Full communion means we share our resources as fully as possible so that God’s work can better be accomplished.
St. David’s Anglican church and Holy Cross Lutheran mission had been living out the Waterloo Accord in the city of Orillia for many years - worshiping together on special occasions, offering programs together, and sharing in pieces of local outreach.
However, at the beginning of 2008, we began to consider whether there was more that God was calling us to do. After many prayerful conversations, a vote was held, and the two congregations decided to become one. Holy Cross had been renting space from another Anglican church in town, so the choice of building was easy.
That spring, we began worshiping together in the building previously known as St. David’s Anglican church. Momentum, joy, and a sense of God’s infinite possibility has only been growing since then, and our worship is now a smooth blending of both traditions. Although we have both an Anglican priest and a Lutheran deaconess on staff, both clergy and congregation alike are fully steeped in one another’s ministries, to the point that definitions of ‘who is Lutheran’ or ‘who is Anglican’ are irrelevant.
