A Controlled Church Auction
The
vestry has asked me to write about the amazing events of Monday, October
31,2016 for inclusion in our church history.Father
John Mears and the congregation at little St. Peter's church in Forestville,
New York, left the apostate Episcopal Diocese to join the Anglican Church of
North America many years ago.
The
Episcopal Diocese continued to claim ownership of this property, which by New
York law they were entitled to do. The national Episcopal church leadership
approved a rule that would not allow any congregation leaving the Episcopal
church to buy the property it occupied.
Jim
Fanning, Chancellor of the Diocese, greatly respected Fr. John and was sympathetic to the
work being done at St. Peter's.Eventually,
(we think with the Chancellor's
encouragement) the Diocese decided to put the property up for public auction,
giving us a chance to bid. The date was set for October 31, 2016 and advertised
in the local newspapers.
Our
vestry and Father White, who had become our pastor after Fr. Mears died, decided
to limit the amount we would bid to $15,000,( all the funds we had.) We were told there was a man from Evans
coming to bid and someone was flying up from Florida with plenty of money. His
plan was to strip the building of its stained glass windows (valued at $35,000)
and remove the ancient timbers and fixtures.
The
auction began at 9 a.m. Nearly all the congregation was there. The bidding
began and surprisingly there was only one other person bidding against us.The
bidding began slowly and when it reached $2700 our Pastor bid $3,000. Suddenly
it was quiet. there was no other bid. “Going once, going twice, sold to St.
Peter's congregation.”
Later,
the other bidder told a member of our congregation, he was planning on bidding
a great deal more and using the building for storage for his business. He said,
“every time I bid, the church people turned and stared at me. I decided I
wasn't strong enough to fight that kind of 'Karma'.”
While
officials were signing all the legal documents two angry men (including the man
from Florida) came in furious they had missed the auction. They mistakenly had
gone to the Forestville Clerk's office and not to the Hanover Clerk's office
where the auction was advertised to be held. These were the men who were
prepared to bid much more.
After the bidding was over, the Diocesan
treasurer said quietly to Chancellor Jim Fanning, “that was the work of the
Holy Spirit.” You can imagine the cheering and tears from our members because it was God, Who arranged the winning bid for us
And
God wasn't through blessing our church. Later, after our pastor had shared our
story at St. Bartholomew's Church in North Tonawanda, a parishioner came and
handed him an envelope containing a check for $3,000. Praise the Lord.
Dorothy Mears, church secretary
Forestville,
NY
