“God is good,” says Bishop Leo J. Michael, who leads an Anglican Faith Community in a historic church building in Liberty. He does not doubt that the story of his parish finding a home in Liberty is one of God in control, leading them through their journey.

The St. James Anglican congregation had its beginnings in the metro 46 years ago, first in Westport, then at 81st and Holmes.

Church leaders and members searched for years for a new building with no success, until one night Bishop Leo’s realtor wife Holly Michael scrolled through MLS listings and came upon a new listing for an old church on Water Street in Liberty, which hadn’t served a congregation since 1981.

As she scrolled through the photos of the church, the last photo convinced her—“This is our church.” It showed the carved sign above the door to the church which read: St. James.

In the 1840s the first Catholic church west of the Mississippi was built in Liberty on the location of present-day St. James Anglican. That original building was torn down and replaced in 1912. It served the St. James Roman Catholic congregation until 1981, when they sold the building and moved to a new campus on the western side of Liberty.

When St. James Anglican found the church building, it was in bad shape. Everything from the original church had been stripped. It had been converted into a bed and breakfast, then a spa, and later an event space. Walls had been built and torn out, the wooden floor had rotted in places, the basement was trashed, and the steeple had been leaking rainwater into the building for years. And, to the sorrow of the new congregation, an original religious mural on the front wall had been painted over by the previous owner.

Nothing had succeeded in the space during the 38 years between St. James Catholic Church selling the building and St. James Anglican buying it.

“No other business made it here. And I just feel like God was keeping it, for it to be a church again,” says Holly Michael.

A light on the hill

Today the restored church is a testimony to the drive, love, and hard work of the Michaels and the small congregation that proudly refers to their sanctuary as “the light on the hill for all to see,” says church member Steve Yingling.

Indeed, the church sits at the junction of Water and McCarty streets in Liberty, one of the higher elevations in Liberty. The new steeple, 100 feet high and painted copper, shines each night for all the community to see.

St. James Anglican celebrates traditional Anglo-Catholic worship and traces its roots to the historic Church in England, Glastonbury in Wales, the cradle of early Christianity, said Bishop Leo. Their first services in Liberty were held in 2019.

Steve and Brenda Yingling joined the St. James Anglican congregation in 2020 when the Covid protocols were in full swing. Brenda discovered the newly opened St. James Anglican while on a bike ride. After investigating, they began attending. “I felt at home and welcomed immediately,” he says.

Both of them are actively involved in church service, in the choir, cleaning the church building each week, Steve as a lay reader, and Brenda helping with the coffee shop and whatever else needs to be done.

“I feel so close to God when I’m there,” says Brenda. “Not just during services, but when I’m having coffee with friends, listening to sacred music, even when I clean the church with my husband each Friday, I feel God’s sacred presence.”