Become a Member

You do not need to be a member to belong at St. Andrew’s. You can sit in our pews, sing our hymns, stay for snacks, and bring us your prayers for as long as you like, and no one will hand you a form. Belonging comes first. That is the order of grace.

But many people reach a moment when they want to stop visiting a church and start belonging to one: to put down roots, to make promises, to take their place in a 160-year-old story that is still being written. If that is you, here is the road, step by step. It is shorter than you think.

Membership begins at the font

The font is the basin of water where baptisms happen, and it is the only door into the Church there has ever been. The Book of Common Prayer says it plainly: “Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ’s Body the Church.”¹ Membership is not a transaction with an institution. It is what God does in the water.

Two things follow from that, and both are good news.

• If you were baptized in another Christian church, your baptism counts here. It does not matter whether it happened in a Baptist baptistry, a Methodist sanctuary, or a Roman Catholic cathedral, as an infant or last spring. The prayer book teaches that “the bond which God establishes in Baptism is indissoluble,” so we will never ask you to be baptized again.¹
• If you have never been baptized, we would count your baptism among the great joys of our year. Our priest, the Rev. Quincy Hall, will walk with you to prepare, at your pace, with room for every question you are carrying. Baptisms are usually celebrated at the great feasts of the church year, such as the Easter Vigil, the Day of Pentecost, and All Saints’, or when the bishop is with us.²

Writing your name in the book

If you are already baptized, becoming a member of St. Andrew’s is almost disappointingly simple. The parish keeps a register, an actual book, with the names of its people. We record your full name, your date of birth, and the date and place of your baptism. That is the whole requirement.

Tell Quincy you would like to join, or contact the office, and we will take care of the rest.

When the bishop comes

The Episcopal Church is led by bishops, and some moments are reserved for them. The Bishop of Alabama visits each parish in the diocese regularly, and the visitation is a feast day for a small church like ours: the church is full, the bishop preaches and presides, and afterward there is usually more food than anyone can finish.³

It is at that visit, at our own altar rail, that three things can happen. Only a bishop can do them, which is why they wait for the visitation.

• Confirmation. If you were baptized as a child, or have never stood up on your own two feet and claimed the faith as yours, confirmation is your moment. The catechism describes it as the rite in which “we express a mature commitment to Christ, and receive strength from the Holy Spirit through prayer and the laying on of hands by a bishop.”⁴ The promises made over you at the font become promises you make yourself, out loud, in front of people who love you.
• Reception. If you have already made a mature public commitment to Christ in another tradition, for instance if you were confirmed as a Roman Catholic or a Lutheran, the bishop does not confirm you again. The bishop receives you, with words worth hearing in full: “We recognize you as a member of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church, and we receive you into the fellowship of this Communion.”⁵ Nothing in your story is wasted. You are not starting over. You are being welcomed home by another room of the same house.
• Reaffirmation. Some people return to faith after years away, or come through a season of grief or change that calls for a fresh start. Reaffirmation is for you: the bishop lays hands on you and prays as you renew the promises of your baptism.⁵

None of this happens cold. The prayer book asks that candidates be baptized, “sufficiently instructed in the Christian Faith,” penitent, and ready to confess Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.⁴ In practice that means a season of preparation with Quincy in the weeks before the visitation: honest conversation about what the church believes and why, with no question ruled out of bounds. Many of us came to the Episcopal Church from somewhere else, so you will be in good company.

If you are already an Episcopalian

Welcome home. Moving your membership from another Episcopal parish takes one sentence: tell us the name of your previous church. Our office will request a letter of transfer, the parishes will trade paperwork, and your name will be entered in our register. Nothing else is required of you, except perhaps a seat at the next potluck.

What membership asks of you

Not dues, and not perfection. The church’s canons describe a communicant in good standing as someone who receives Communion at least three times a year and is “faithful in corporate worship” and “in working, praying, and giving for the spread of the Kingdom of God.”⁶ In plain words: show up, pray, and put your hands and your gifts to use. The shape that takes is between you and God, and we will help you find it.

Membership also carries a voice. Adult members in good standing vote at the annual parish meeting and may be elected to the vestry, the lay council that helps lead the parish. In the Episcopal Church, the people are not an audience. They are ministers of the church, every one.⁴

Start with a conversation

Every road on this page runs through the same door: a conversation with the Rev. Quincy Hall. He will hear your story, help you find which of these paths is yours, and tell you when the bishop next comes to Montevallo. It is an unhurried conversation, not an interview. There is no test to pass.

And if you are not ready for any of this, that is truly fine. Come to a Sunday service first. Come for a month of Sundays. The table will still be set, and the chair with your name on it is not going anywhere.