CHURCH HISTORY
St. Timothy’s Church
HISTORY OF
During the summer of 1999, a group of traditional and orthodox Christians began to look for such a church in Jonesboro, Arkansas. We searched and eventually found such a church perfectly suited to what was missing in Northeast Arkansas. But the church was in Memphis, TN.
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We visited St. James Anglican Church, a Reformed Episcopal Parish, for a few months and found it to be a match to our own beliefs. This next step was to get an Anglican Church planted in Jonesboro. The quest began the following year.
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The Presiding Bishop of the Reformed Episcopal Church in Katy, Texas, the Right Reverend Royal Grote, and the Memphis priest Fr. Brad Cunningham were invited to visit us. We were impressed with the solid belief in Holy Scripture and Traditional and orthodox teaching. A short time later, St. Timothy's was established as a mission church under the structure of the Reformed Episcopal Church, now within the Anglican Communion of the Anglican Church in North America.
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Within a year, St. Timothy's membership grew to become a self-sustaining parish. During the first year our services were held at the chapel at St. Bernards Village. Shortly thereafter, a building was purchased, renovated, and dedicated to Christ Jesus and His Teachings.
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St. Timothy's welcomes all to participate in the love of Christ and to follow His teachings. We welcome all Christians who have been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to receive Holy Communion, regardless of Church affiliation.
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Come to St. Timothy's and be a part of orthodox worship that has been experienced through the ages.
Anglican Church
HISTORY OF THE
Anglicanism is a form of Christianity that originated in Britain as far back as the 1st or 2nd century. According to tradition, Joseph of Arimathea brought the gospel to Britain after Christ's resurrection. Though little is known about its earliest foundations, records indicate that British bishops attended some of the earliest church councils, including those at Arles (314) and Nicaea (325).
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After the Revolutionary War, the Anglican church in the American colonies became a distinct ecclesiastical body with the birth of the United States. Following their hard-won independence from the English, Americans no longer wished for their churches to be identified as Anglican since this association implied an English identity. Consequently, they almost exclusively used the name "Episcopalian" after the war.
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The newly formed "Episcopal Church" did not seek to diverge from the essential points of doctrine, discipline, or worship of the Church of England beyond what local circumstances would allow (The Book of Common Prayer, p.11). The term "episcopal" originates from the Greek word "episcopos," which means "overseer," a word used in the New Testament to describe the office of a bishop overseeing a local church or group of churches. "Church" derives from the Greek word "ekklesia," meaning "assembly," used in the New Testament to refer to God's people gathered in a congregation. Hence, the phrase "episcopal church" means a church overseen by bishops in accordance with the New Testament model.
