When the Rev. Kris Opat returned to St. David’s Episcopal Church in suburban Pittsburgh in 2012, only 20 people were there to start over as a congregation with him. The sanctuary, which seats 300, made the group look even smaller. The building’s previous occupants, part of the Anglican Church in North America, had just decamped.
Ordained for only three years, Opat had never been a priest-in-charge.
Today, St. David’s is a growing parish with almost 300 members, mostly busy young families in a growing suburb who have no previous Episcopal ties. They hear the message of Christ’s unconditional love preached every week from Opat, 38, a trained engineer with dreadlocks who grew up in this congregation.
Opat’s entire career as a priest has unfolded amid the rancor and litigation in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and weathering that conflict has influenced his welcoming, no-nonsense approach to ministry.
“The split in 2008 was terrible, but since then some wonderful things have happened,” said the Rev. Lou Hays, a retired priest who served in the diocese and mentored Opat. “St. David’s is the top of the list.”
More here-
https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2019/01/23/amid-pittsburgh-division-a-priest-revives-the-parish-that-raised-him/?fbclid=IwAR16f9kqxgfQWBnwfxC03v0RSLz7yF_ry18XZl-D2L8XDZr-kcq65N6x9AM
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