Virginia church may look Anglican, but it's fully Baptist The altar and the Eucharist are the central focus of worship at All Souls Charlottesville. (All Souls Facebook photo) By Jeff Brumley Sunday mornings at All Souls Charlottesville are fairly common for an Anglican congregation. The Book of Common Prayer and the Revised Common Lectionary are standard, creeds are spoken together, the Eucharist is the central focus of the liturgy and the minister blesses the congregation before it scatters back into the world. But the Charlottesville, Va., congregation isn’t an Episcopal church. It’s Baptist — in fact it’s a plant of the Baptist General Association of Virginia and is celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2014. This isn’t a Baptist church in the Charleston tradition, a structured expression of worship often distinguished from the more revivalistic Sandy Creek tradition. It goes beyond that to include wine in communion and the view by some, including Pastor Winn Collier, that worship and life ought to be expressed sacramentally. “You would think it was Anglican,” Collier said. “I know this is a little odd in the Baptist world.” A little, but increasingly less so, according to experts on Baptist polity and worship practices. While being contemplative and having an intense focus on the sacrament of communion are not necessarily the same, a growing number of Baptist churches are exploring elements of both in an era when Christians and “nones” are rejecting highly produced, modern worship experiences. The result can be the adoption of Taizé services, adding periods of silence to worship, breath prayer and other contemplative practices, said Molly Marshall, president of Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, Kan. For others, it can go much further than that, she added. “Some of the ancient traditions have come to the fore as people realize some of the noisy parts of worship do not allow the heart room to engage,” Marshall said. Some are finding the movement to be especially attractive to younger Christians, said Rodney Kennedy, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio, and author of Gathering Together: Baptists at Work in Worship. “They want more than motivational speeches or topical sermons,” Kennedy said. “They want worship that requires work and effort from them.” But that desire can also cut across generations by attracting those who are drawn to services that connect them with ancient Christianity, Kennedy said. “Sacramental worship puts us in touch with the communion of saints,” he said. “The benefit of this approach is that we become the actors in worship and not the audience.” Click here for the rest of the article: http://www.abpnews.com/ministry/con...-church-is-anglican-leaning-but-fully-baptist