About 450 members (out of a total of 1,700) of St. Peter's congregation walked 6.2 miles from church's old home in the 900 block of Thomasville Road to the new, $12-million Gothic cathedral at 4784 Thomasville Road. Father Eric Dudley, the church's pastor, will hold the first service inside the 30,000-square-foot building on Sunday.

Craig Curry holds the crucifix for the last time in the old St. Peter's Anglican Church on Sunday. Parishioners from the St. Peter's Anglican Church marched 6 miles from their old church building on 901 Thomasville Road to their new spacious cathedral at 4784 Thomasville for a tour and grand opening ceremony. The $12 million church is a beautiful spacious cathedral that can hold up to 1700 people comfortably. Actual services begin in a couple of weeks.

Policeman Dave Farrell provided security for the hundreds of walkers on Sunday. Parishioners from the St. Peter's Anglican Church marched 6 miles from their old church building on 901 Thomasville Road to their new spacious cathedral at 4784 Thomasville for a tour and grand opening ceremony. The $12 million church is a beautiful spacious cathedral that can hold up to 700 people comfortably. Actual services begin in a couple of weeks.

A giant crucifix hangs in the new church. Parishioners from the St. Peter's Anglican Church marched 6 miles from their old church building on 901 Thomasville Road to their new spacious cathedral at 4784 Thomasville for a tour and grand opening ceremony. The $12 million church is a beautiful spacious cathedral that can hold up to 700 people comfortably. Actual services begin in a couple of weeks.

Young and old attended Sunday's grand opening of the new St. Peter's Anglican Church on Sunday.
The Chamber's Mark Raciappa announced the new St. Peter's Anglican Church’s grand opening on Sunday.

Father Eric Dudley of the St. Peter's Anglican Church does the ceremonial ribbon cutting on Sunday afternoon.

Visitors toured the interior of the new St. Peter's Anglican Church on Sunday. Visitors got to see the beautiful new interior of their church on Sunday.

Members who walked were led by two men carrying a St. Peter's banner. Throughout the walk people chattered about finally being able to see the inside of the new church. Most told stories about past mission trips to pass the time — the walk lasted about two hours.

Father Andrew Rowell, associate rector of evangelism and discipleship at St. Peter's, said the walk was meant to be a statement of faith to the community.

"Just like the Israelites went out into the desert to walk with the lord for all of those years, we want to go out in a grand procession with God going before us, behind us, above us and beneath us," Rowell said.

Many of the members who began the walk at the church walked the entire 6.2-mile stretch of road between the old church and the new one. Many people honked their car horns in support of the walk and several Tallahassee Police Department officers volunteered their time to ensure the congregation got to the new building safely.

Several people who didn't walk but wanted to help set up water stops along the way and offered their homes as places for people to rest and use the bathroom.

Rowell said St. Peter's has a sense of "family and togetherness."People honking while driving by and waving have been awesome."

"We have done this through God's will and God's blessing as a community," he said. "We've done this together. Every single person in the parish has given something to this new cathedral. When they walk into it I want them to feel like this is the house of the lord."

Joyce McNeill, one of the founding members of St. Peter's, said she's extremely excited about the new church. She said the support from the community made the walk much easier.

"The membership is at 1700, 450 people made the walk...700 people left St Johns Episcopal church here in Tallahassee 8 years ago to start St Peter's.

"In a Christian culture of church shopping and "looking like the world to attract the world", I am thrilled to be a part of something contrary to that ethos. This new building and our Anglican worship looks set apart from the culture for the sake of the distinct Gospel God has given us through Jesus," said Chris Garven, the church's musician leader and organist.

There are still a few minor tweaks that need to be made before the church is complete, Dudley said. New doors need to be installed and so do plaques. The church will be consecrated June 14.

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How St. Peter’s Anglican Church is changing the community landscape for Gospel Mission

The following is taken from The Apostle magazine the official organ of the Anglican Church in North America.

The Apostle interviews the Rev. Eric Dudley, rector of St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Tallahassee, Florida. He and his wife Belinda have been married for twenty-five years and have three children. He received his B.A. from Wofford College, SC, an M.Div. from Vanderbilt University, an S.T.M. from Yale University, and is in the process of completing a D.Min from the University of the South.

Covenant Community (a cross is atop each spire). There are 5 Celtic crosses on the outside of the building, representing the 5 wounds of Christ, and tipping the hat to our British heritage. There are three towers and three west doors, representing the Trinity of God.

St. Peter’s Anglican Church was founded in 2005 with 800 members. On December 1, 2012, St. Peter’s broke ground for a new church building in a distinctive architectural style and mission. The new building will be consecrated in June 2014 as the cathedral for the Diocese of the Gulf Atlantic.

For many decades, churches have been built in a variety of architectural styles. Why did you decide to build in a more “historical” architectural style?

I am very much a traditionalist, and believe strongly that it is the distinctiveness of Anglican liturgy, when done with joy and energy and real faith, that draws people. From our perspective, many churches in Tallahassee seek to do “contemporary” style-worship, while we feel called to the worship of liturgical
Anglicanism.

Someone in the community asked me, “Why didn’t you build something that fits in with the architecture of Tallahassee?” I said, “We don’t want to fit in, we want to stand out, we want to be distinctive.”

Gothic architecture was created as a distinctively Christian form of architecture, something that communicates the Gospel of Jesus through its very design.

How did you find your theology informing your architectural choices?

The shape of a Gothic church is the shape of the cross of Christ, so that our worship is literally shaped by the cross (an aerial view makes this especially clear). The church is oriented with the altar in the east so that the rising sun reminds us each day of the rising Son of God. We have 24 spires on the church, representing the 24 elders who stand around the throne of God, the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles – God’s whole Covenant Community (a cross is atop each spire) There are 5 Celtic crosses on the outside of the building, representing the 5 wounds of Christ, and tipping the hat to our British heritage. There are three towers and three west doors, representing the Trinity of God.

Inside the church are windows, all of which will eventually be stained. Three have already been purchased and are being created by Wippell in Exeter, England. The nave windows will tell the story of salvation history (from the Fall to the Resurrection), the west rose represents creation, the east rose represents the new creation (Revelation), the clerestory windows are the saints through the ages, walking in procession with us toward the Altar of God, and the transept windows represent St.
Peter. There will be hand-rung bells in the bell tower, joyously celebrating the Glory of God.

How is St. Peter’s experiencing restoration and renewal?

It has been amazing to see how the building of this church has affected us as a parish and has impacted the city around us. This building is so unusual in its style that the whole city of Tallahassee is talking about it. We have received free media coverage of every sort, even from media outlets that may not like our theology. This has created a great opportunity for witness. Already people we’ve never heard of are calling asking if they can be married in the church, and new people are showing up in our current building curious about us because they’ve seen the new building on the other side of town.

In terms of restoration, I think this feels to the parish that we are finally being restored, permanently planted. The building of this church, the considerable investment that it represents, says to us all that we are here to stay. Our children and grandchildren will be raised in this church. We are being buried in this church. In fact, Bishop Jecko, my former bishop in the Episcopal Church, will be the first to have his remains interred in the floor of the sanctuary. This is not a temporary space, we have built for future generations.

How would you encourage others in the Anglican Church in North America who are considering or in the midst of building projects?

As you might imagine, I have received criticism from some through the course of this project. Some have said, “Why spend all of that money when you could have done something great for the poor?” My response has been that this is a very short-sighted perspective. First, this parish has not stopped our considerable commitment to the poor in this process. Secondly, we are building something that will be here for generations – something that will be a vehicle of the Gospel to change hearts and lives – and have an impact in this city for the Gospel of Jesus.

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