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MICHIGAN: Minister hopes to put aside gay controversy, move on
By George Jaksa
THE FLINT JOURNAL
FLUSHING, MI (9/16/2006)-- Although he left the Episcopal Church over the ordination of openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the Rev. David Kulchar said he is ready to put the issue to rest and move on.
"We don't want to focus on that," said Kulchar, 48, former rector at Trinity Episcopal Church. "It's not an issue I want to debate."
Kulchar now heads an intimate group of worshipers under a name he created: New Wine Anglican Mission.
About 15-20 people, including former Episcopalians, meet at 10:30 a.m. Sundays in a building near downtown Flint for worship and communion.
But the hallmark of the ministry is groups of 6-12 people who meet separately during the week for Bible study, sharing and prayer.
"We have an evangelical spirit," Kulchar said of the ministry he created in July 2005, a year after parting from the Episcopal Church establishment. "It's not so much a protest movement, but to create an umbrella for those who we see as having conservative Christian values."
He said New Wine, which takes its name from Scriptures, is part of the Anglican Mission in America, established in Amsterdam in August 2000 under the oversight of archbishops in Rwanda and Southeast Asia. It was seen as a way for congregations and clergy to be fully Anglican - rooted in the same traditions as the Episcopal Church - while being free of what some see as the crises of faith, leadership and mission of the Episcopal Church U.S.A.
Kulchar said he hopes the Anglican Mission in America, which now numbers more than 100 churches, will become part of the Anglican province of the United States that is expected to be formed before year's end. He said he welcomes the prospect of reuniting officially with priests who either left of were forced out of the Episcopal Church but remain in the Anglican community.
Kulchar said Sunday services in the Court Street Village nonprofit building, 727 East St., combine the ancient and contemporary. The church hopes to attract members 20-30 years old and already has a young music leader in Will Luongo, 23.
In addition to New Wine Mission, Kulchar assists another church in Lansing that is part of a movement to establish more Anglican Mission in America churches across the United States.
