Written by Ben Cox – St. John’s Church, built in 1892, is the oldest continuous church in Brownwood and celebrates its 130th anniversary this year. It sits precariously close to 377 at the intersection of Main and Depot streets.
A beautiful building with ornate adornments and intricate stained glass, St. John’s evokes a feeling of reverence and reflection upon entering its doors, which remain unlocked 24 hours a day for prayer and reflection. The church is led by Father Michael Mobley, who has been in the position of Rector for almost five years.
A former Baptist, Father Mobley tells of his early inklings of faith.
“When I was a kid, you know how you used to make those forts in the den with blankets? I used to build a big one outside during the summer,” he remembers. “My dad had this stool, and the way I set the stool up and the way I put a certain blanket up it reminded me of a cathedral church. When my friends would come over I would make them listen to me read the Bible to them.“
Mobley says that while he didn’t attend church with regular attendance until junior high, he ”can’t think of a time when I didn’t believe that Jesus was the savior of the world.” Attending on Easter and Christmas most of his formative years, he increased his attendance at the Baptist church his family attended.
He sensed a calling to ministry after his baptism as an older teenager. During a youth week where the youth group ran the church, he gave his first sermon as an 18 year old while serving as the senior pastor for the week.
Attending college to study business to avoid having a foreign language requirement, Mobley ”hated accounting!” He began to make plans to attend Dallas Theological Seminary after college.
“I went in Baptist and came out an Anglican, in four years,” Mobley says. “What turned me to Anglicanism is this: when I went to seminary, I had never read Martin Luther or John Calvin but I’d head a lot about them.”
Sacrament was discussed often in the writings of the early Protestant leaders lead Mobley began to investigate Sacraments and those investigations lead him to Anglicanism.
In the Anglican faith, lead priests are referred to as Rectors. Most of the smaller churches only have one priest on staff. Priests can also wear other hats in different size churches, from academics to assistant priests.
Priests in the Anglican faith wear the white collar often associated with Catholic churches, and Mobley explains the collar “symbolizes that you are a bond servant to Christ.” The collar was originally a complete collar that encircles the neck, however in early churches in England, priests would wear cassocks that only revealed a small portion of the collar. The tab collar is an extension of that image and is worn across many faiths from Baptists to Catholics.
In the Anglican faith, priests are called to churches after a selection process that involves the bishop of the diocese selecting possible candidates for the position from a list of available priests, and submitting their names to the local church. The church then decides which priest they feel should lead them and invites them to accept the position.
“The Anglican Church is the ‘via media’ or ‘middle way’ between Roman Catholicism and full blown Protestantism,” Mobley says. The church traces its roots all the way back to the early Church of England, and became an independent religion after some run-ins with famous rulers.
As Head of the Church of England, King John was excommunicated from the Catholic Church in 1208 after a confrontation with Pope Innocent the 3rd, King Henry the 8th cut ties in 1553 for his famous divorce in search of a male heir, and the final thread was cut in 1570 after Queen Elizabeth the 1st was excommunicated by Pope Pius the 5th.
Referred to as “Episcopalian” after the Revolutionary war (Anglican simply means English) the church was separated from the Church of England in name only. The Anglican faith grew out of the Episcopalian faith.
On Sundays, St. John’s offers a Holy Eucharist at 8 a.m., Christian Education classes at 9:15 a.m., and the Choral Eucharist at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday the church offers a Holy Eucharist with Unction for Healing at 6:30 p.m., followed by Adult Christian Education Classes. The church phone number is 325-646-7482 and they are located at 700 Main Street near downtown.
