Our Vision
To follow Jesus together in such a way that our lives become fearless in love for God and people.
Having placed our faith in Christ Jesus the Lord, we live as a community learning to walk in him, rooted and built up in his love and abounding in thanksgiving (Colossians 2:6-7). We seek to experience what it means to give full, trusting allegiance to Jesus.
We want to practice authentic faith in the way we live: in our friendships, family, work, rest and culture – to the end that we become a joyful expression of the Kingdom of God together.
This way of living is a well-worn path that has been passed down faithfully through the ages. We base our hopes, priorities, and choices on the truth God revealed by His Spirit through the Scriptures.
Following Jesus takes us on an adventure that often requires holding on tight — to Him, to each other, and to our hope that one day our faith will be sight.
Our Rhythms
We pursue our vision through these communal practices
We gather weekly to glorify God through worship that engages us – body, spirit, and imagination – in the wonder of His grace. We sing, we kneel, we raise our hands or make the sign of the cross over our hearts; we pray the psalms and profess the creeds; we come to the Lord’s Table in response to his invitation. Our worship trains us in hope for the renewal of all things, beginning with ourselves.
We commit to reading, praying, and learning to live God’s Word, individually and together. On Sundays, we follow a Bible reading plan called the lectionary that takes us through the full biblical narrative every three years. During the week, we regularly meet in small groups or classes for discussion-based Bible or book studies.
We seek the welfare of our world through partnerships with local and global ministries that provide for others’ physical and spiritual needs; and we seek to engage those who are exploring faith or who’ve lost their faith through prayer, conversation, and invitation.
We practice and promote loving hospitality toward family, friends, and neighbors as a primary way of expressing our faith and nurturing relationships.
In an era of increasing fragmentation and loneliness, our missionary work includes extending God’s welcome — to each other, but also to all who enter our doors or who live beyond them. We practice this on Sundays at church, during our midweek gatherings and especially our Alpha course, as well as in our homes and lives throughout Haywood County.
Our Beliefs
During each worship service, we recite either the Apostles' or the Nicene Creed as part of our worship. These creeds provide a basic statement of what we believe, in continuity with the historic church.
Our Anglican Story
The Vine began as a non-denominational community church in 2002. Those involved in its founding held a Wesleyan-Arminian theological perspective (think ‘old school’ Methodist). Yet, people from many different backgrounds found a home with us. A blending of ancient liturgical practices, contemporary music, heartfelt and often artistically inspired worship and biblically sound teaching, has always been characteristic of The Vine.
Though we did not fit neatly into a ready-made category, we stood on a traditional and orthodox understanding of the scriptures and gladly found fellowship with other like-minded churches. For 10 years, we maintained a vision to offer the Lord and his people fresh and novel worship experiences every Sunday morning of the year. This was a joyful season for many. Yet over time, we found this vision very difficult to sustain and further develop within a community of our size.
For this reason we began implementing changes which leaned more heavily on our historic Christian legacy while still keeping our contemporary music and relaxed style. Attentively watching the long-brewing cultural and denominational upheavals of the 2000s – 2010s, Rev. Owen Fulghum (our founding pastor) began to experience what would be a persistent urge to connect to and be anchored in a broader body which championed gospel-driven mission and Reformation orthodoxy – as Vine of the Mountains (now The Vine Anglican Church) always sought to do. This meant stepping up some changes for the sake of participating in the blessings which can come with being part of a larger body of believers.
Further, as we did not own a church facility and at times have had to change worship spaces, we sometimes felt our identity fluctuate according to our location. Noting this, Pastor Owen discerned a growing need for a sturdy spiritual “home” in which to secure our church family. Answers to this need were discovered in the recently formed (2009) Anglican Church in North America (ACNA).
In 2017, joining with the ACNA became a serious consideration for us. Beginning with conversations with Bishop Steve Wood of the Diocese of the Carolinas (now Archbishop of the ACNA) and developing this consideration in our congregation’s leadership, we found kinship with the new Anglican movement.
This movement was and is a coalition of believers who banded together in the early 2000s by holding steadfastly to biblically faithful teaching – who had separated from a denomination they believed had become diminishingly faithful to the authority of scripture. Their significant growth has come from a strong emphasis on gospel-mission, church planting and ancient-yet-timeless liturgical worship practices. The ACNA presently consists of 128,000+ members in over 1000 churches in North America. We were welcomed into their “communion” in early October of 2022.
Today, we are happy to think of ourselves as “folk Anglican.” We gather around ancient rhythms in a warm and welcoming environment that is at times lively, at times contemplative, and always pointing to the life-giving good news of the Gospel Story. Through the twists and turns of our local story, the Vine Anglican Church remains a community following Jesus together in such a way that our lives become fearless in love for God and people.
The Anglican Church originally began in the British Isles during the early 1500s as the “English” part of the broader Reformation / Protestant movement, but its roots go even deeper. Christianity reached the British Isles shortly after Constantine’s establishment of the “Holy Roman Empire” in the mid-300s A.D. Though long under papal authority, as was most of Christendom, believers in Britain fostered an expression of the faith distinctive to the people of the Isles, including an ancient Celtic Christian spirituality to which many are drawn even today. Those nurtured by this strain of Christian belief and practice established a “middle way” during the Reformation, retaining the ancient rhythms of the Church while shedding corrupt aspects of the Roman Church which were of human contrivance.
Most Anglicans today live their lives of vibrant faith in Jesus outside of Britain, including tens of millions of Anglicans throughout nations in the southern hemisphere. We are glad to be among them. And though no denomination, network, nor individual church is untainted by sin and error, we have found the Anglican Church in North America to be a healthy harbor of encouragement from which to launch out into the world with the good news of Jesus.
ACNA's Diocese of the Carolinas
In March 2023, we were formally welcomed into the Diocese of the Carolinas of the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). Now we are exploring, learning from, and growing in our branch of the Christian faith. This has been a very eventful season of our church’s story!
Anglican-formed luminaries—from Thomas Cranmer and John Wesley, Harriet Tubman to T.S. Eliot, to C.S. Lewis, Austin Farrer, Dorothy Sayers, J.K. Rowling, Beth Moore (recent), and Bono—each offer encouraging glimpses of a variety of those who point to Jesus in the Anglican way. Yet our call to live as faithful disciples, right here and right now in Haywood County and beyond, is the real adventure which lies before us!
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