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Episcopal Church Poised To Have Full-Time Priest

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By JANIS D. FROELICH, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 3, 2007

TAMPA - Georgette Gardner-Johnson likes the coziness of St. Chad's Episcopal Church.

But the educator is part of a growing parish that faces a major change brought on by the doubling of its attendance in the past few years.

'We are willing to go forward,' senior warden Charles Hull said. 'Never in the history of St. Chad's have we had a full-time vicar.'

Historically, St. Chad's is a mission church served by a supply priest.

The new priest job will go to Christian Villagomeza, who has served part time at St. Chad's since 1991, mostly on weekends. His full-time job is as a hospice chaplain.

St. Chad's attracts about 95 people to its Sunday service. Villagomeza said about 45 are members, and he wants to boost that number if the diocese approves the bishop's committee's recommendation about his full-time employment.

The plan is to have Villagomeza, who emigrated from the Philippines in 1985, in place by January, said Hull, a native of Trinidad.

Under his guidance, St. Chad's, 5609 N. Albany Ave., has provided what parishioners such as Gardner-Johnson seek in a church.

'I like the diversity and the family atmosphere,' said Gardner-Johnson, assistant principal at Cleveland Elementary.

'We have a diverse group of members - Asians, blacks, Hispanics, Caucasians,' Villagomeza said. 'But there is also cohesiveness. There's no segregation. Everybody sits together.'

Choir treasurer Martha Humbert agrees.

'I will tell you, it's wonderful,' she said, bustling around during the coffee hour after a Sunday service.

She came to St. Chad's in 1997 when St. James, Tampa's first Episcopal church, and The House of Prayer, founded in 1907, were about to merge. St. Chad's was asked to join the merger because it was struggling at the time, according to a Tampa Tribune report.

St. Chad's didn't join the merger because the process was taking too long, and members thought they could expand the church, according to the article.

Chuck and Frankie Bash moved to Tampa 27 years ago as Roman Catholics. But when a St. Chad's priest came to their house and offered a church key if they needed anything, they decided to check out the place.

'We weren't sure what an Episcopalian was,' Chuck Bash said. 'But we found out and have been here ever since.'

Rosemary Borel-Hull, who serves on the newcomer ministry, said most people in her native Jamaica are Anglican. So to come to St. Chad's is like a slice of the islands.

'But really everyone is from some place interesting,' she said.

The church also has an African-American hymnal; the choir sang 'Just A Closer Walk With Thee' on a recent morning, a spiritual not in the standard Episcopal hymnal.

St. Chad's has a longtime Over 50 outreach program. Kitty Aycock, who lives nearby, said the social agenda has been a lifeline to her.

The 83-year-old Aycock, a St. Chad's member since 1973, said the church is her family, especially since her husband died a few years ago.

'I don't think I could still live in my house,' she said, 'if the members here didn't look after me the way they do.'

Reporter Janis D. Froelich can be reached at (813) 835-2104 or jfroelich@tampatrib

IF YOU GO

WHAT: St. Chad's Episcopal Church, 5609 N. Albany Ave., Tampa

SERVICES: 9 a.m. Sunday

CONTACT: (813) 872-7545 or www.stchadstampa.org

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