In November 2007, the Traverse City Prayer Group began to pray for a new Anglican Mission in Traverse City, Michigan. Fr. Dave Linka, Rector of New Life Anglican Church, Petoskey, MI, served as priest and mentor for the group.
Through the New LifeAnglican Church newsletter, Fr. Kurt and Jo-Ann Henle became aware of the need for a church planting pastor and began communicating with Fr. Dave in March of 2008. After a period of prayer, discernment, and visits with the Prayer Group, Fr Kurt and Jo-Ann were invited and moved to Traverse City in late October 2008 to begin the work of planting the new AMiA Church in NW Michigan.
On Nov. 5, 2008, the church voted to adopt the name All Saints AnglicanChurch to reflect a welcoming attitude for this new branch of Christ's Body, open to all people.
The first Informational Meeting and Evening Prayer took place on Sunday, Jan. 18, 2009, and was attended by more than 40 people. The Gathering opened with prayer and the singing of "The Church's One Foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord". Fr. Dave Linka, Rector of New Life Anglican Church in Petoskey, and Fr. "Doc" Loomis, Canon Missioner of the AMiA then spoke of the mission imperative for Anglicans everywhere, while Fr. Kurt Henle spoke his hopes for the Anglican ministry for Traverse City. After several questions, the Gathering concluded with the Service of Evening Prayer, the hymn "Now thank we all our God" and a Reception. More pictures of the event are shown on through the link on the sidebar.
The Traverse City Record-Eagle announced the upcoming event on Jan. 3, and then featured All Saints as the Religion story for Jan. 10. We are grateful to the Religion editor, Gretchen Murray for these announcements. VirtueOnline also posted this story on the same day at his website.
After 33 weeks of Sunday afternoon worship in the Library of the Church of the Living God, All Saints Anglican Church moved in September 2009 to Temple Beth-El for Sunday morning worship Services.
All Saints Anglican Church was planted in January 2009 as a Mission effort under the oversight of the Anglican Mission in American (AMiA, see below). Bishop David "Doc" Loomis came on August 7, 2011 for Confirmations and Reaffirmation of Faith. However, when the AMiA broke with the Anglican Church of Rwanda and subsequently imploded, our parish came under the oversight of PEAR-USA (Provence de l'Eglise Anglicane au Rwanda), the continuing mission work of the Anglican Church of Rwanda in North America. In 2012, our new bishop became Kenneth Ross from Colorado Springs, CO. He came to visit the parish for Confirmation and Reaffirmation on May 17, 2015.
In the fall of 2015, the PEAR House of Bishops requested that its North American parishes tranfer to the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) by mid-2016. This brought us into yet another jurisdiction, the ACNA-Anglican Diocese of the Rocky Mountains.
In 2016, we requested a transfer to a local Diocese to facilitate a normal connection with other geographically nearby Anglican churches. By mistake we were transferred to the Anglican Diocese of the Great Lake, an ACNA group of churches that significantly deviates from traditional Anglicanism. Through the mediation of Bishop John Pafford the parish voted unanimously in November 2017 to join the Anglican Dioceses of the Great Lakes (DGL) under Bishop David Hustwick (see Links). We thank God for our new home in a stable traditional Anglican jurisdiction. We are grateful to the warm welcome we received in the DGL from like-minded Anglicans.
The Beginnings of All Saints Anglican Church in Traverse City
