What happens when a Baptist church plants an Anglican parish in its midst? Holy Trinity Edmonds is finding out. 

At their 10-year anniversary service in March, North Sound Church in Edmonds, Washington, made an announcement. After carefully considering the demographics and psychographics of their small community, they had decided to plant a church—an Anglican parish with the Diocese of C4SO—within their own walls.

The decision raised more than a few eyebrows around town. But that October, the Baptist sanctuary filled with flickering candles, vestments and 150 people repeating the Nicene Creed and Passing the Peace at Holy Trinity Edmonds’ grand opening service. The two churches now share a building—Holy Trinity meets on Saturday nights—as well as some funding and resources in what church planter and former North Sound staffer Ryan Brotherton calls “a true kingdom mindset.”

Why would a Baptist church want to plant an Anglican parish? Brotherton explains that North Sound is “deeply committed to planting churches and out-of-the-box thinking.”

“Over the last few years, we discovered Edmonds doesn’t have the population density to plant in individual neighborhoods, and many of our residents were expressing a need for a liturgical church that was biblically and historically faithful,” he says.

Brotherton, an Edmonds native with a passion for his community, joined North Sound’s staff in 2012 with the intent to plant another Baptist congregation. He’d grown up Pentecostal and was attending seminary at an Assemblies of God university when he met a theology professor being baptized and chrismated into the Eastern Orthodox Church. Another one of his professors was contemplating converting a church plant into the Anglican world. As Ryan discovered the history of the Anglican Church and its perspective on liturgy and ancient practices, he was blown away by the richness and meaning.

“I was a little bit mad that I had never learned this stuff,” he says. “That’s when I started being drawn to and fell in love with the liturgy.”

Brotherton’s interest in Anglicanism dovetailed with North Sound’s church planting research supporting a new liturgical church in their community. Shortly thereafter, Bishop Todd Hunter visited North Sound and talked to the elders about the possibility of starting an Anglican church. He also walked with Brotherton as he prayerfully discerned his call to the priesthood.

Today Brotherton is still delving deeper into Anglicanism and was recently ordained into C4SO by Bishop Kevin Bond Allen of the Diocese of Cascadia—who attended Holy Trinity’s launch last fall. Supported by seasoned leaders, in 2015 Holy Trinity Edmonds will unveil a new discipleship engine for parishioners, many of whom hail from a liturgical background but have left the church for decades.

“Starting this year, our primary means of discipleship will be spiritual direction groups,” Brotherton says. “We intend to have an experienced director lead us in a retreat and do some training to equip our people to facilitate the groups. Each group will include three or four people and will help our congregation to determine their callings.”

The groups will meet for six to eight months, and at the end of that time, more parishioners will be trained and able to facilitate a spiritual direction group of their own. When parishioners have discerned their callings, they will naturally lead the outreach of the church in those directions, Brotherton hopes. It might take a while for that to happen organically, but Brotherton, though a natural activator and entrepreneur, realizes there is no rush to achieve arbitrary goals.

“I’m being challenged to slow down as we have been meeting with one of the spiritual directors,” he says. “She made a dynamite point: God’s usually not in as big a hurry as we are. I find myself often putting the brakes on things I want to see happen to make sure we’re following our values and walking in what the Holy Spirit is laying out for us to do as a church—and for the people to do individually and in their community.”

So what’s it like being Anglican in a Baptist backyard?

“We have incredible support being able to plant on top of another church,” Brotherton says. “It lowers that panic mode, allowing for patience to see what the Holy Spirit is going to do and walk in it, as opposed to generating everything on the front end. I’m really enjoying it. It allows us to build a culture that is authentically Anglican—focusing on reflection, spiritual disciplines and recognizing where God is at work, and walking in that.”

Learn more about Holy Trinity Edmonds.