Synod and St. Augustine's

Things are very quiet at St. Bartholomew's this week, what with Fr. Daniel and Deacon Ed among those converging on St. Augustine's, Chico CA, for our annual diocesan Synod. I wish I could be going (I had planned to, I was a delegate) but am needed here. I finally remembered to call and give my regrets to Bishop Provence this morning.

Synod was held at St. Augustine's just a couple of years ago and there I heard their story, as follows (maybe somebody can add in the parts I have forgotten):

The church was formed by a group that left the Episcopal church back in the late 80s or early 90s (I am very fuzzy on the timeframe). This reduced the size of the Episcopal congregation to where the historic old building could not be sustained, so it was put up for sale. St. Augustine's parish tried to buy it, but was refused.

The building was finally sold, deconsecrated, and turned into an upscale Chinese restaurant. As it was designated a historic building, the exterior had to be preserved; only the cross atop the steeple came down. The nave became a restaurant, the sanctuary a bar, and a large room downstairs a nightclub. The Chico police soon got to know the latter quite well as it was the source of much trouble.

Perhaps the good people of Chico were uncomfortable eating in a former church; the restaurant did not do well. After a few years it went out of business and the building was put up for sale again. The nearby university wanted the building for a student center, but the it did not meet the university's earthquake codes so they had to pass.

Through a significant part of the story I have forgotten, St. Augustine's parish was able to buy the building, and they set about restoring it. The expensive kitchen equipment was sold to help pay for the effort.

When they started removing the Chinese restaurant facades they started to discover little crosses hidden here and there behind the facades, apparently secreted by the unknown workmen who'd installed the facades years earlier. (I saw pictures of some of the discovered crosses in the church's "reconstruction" photo album.)

Soon they had restored the beautiful old (by West Coast standards!) church, now named St. Augustine's, to its historic form and use -- with a cross atop the steeple again, and some of those who'd left the building and its church many years before had come home again to their old church building.

Click through and take a look at St. Augustine's.