A Remarkable Gift :: Given Solely to Expand God’s Kingdom

Recently, St. Andrew’s received a gift – a remarkable piece of property on Romney Street in downtown Charleston – with the agreement we would work to establish a church on the property. The owners – Demi and Ellie Howard – owned the property for many years and recently sold the business they had operated on the 1.5 acre property. They are active members of Trinity (Anglican) Church on Edisto Island.

The Howards had been approached numerous times to sell the property to developers but they felt deeply that the Lord wanted them to do something bigger than simply building apartments on the property. The vision they have is to bring others in that rapidly growing area to Christ. The Howards, while not affiliated with St. Andrew’s, sought counsel and asked who might be able to bring this vision to life. St. Andrew’s was suggested a number of times.

A Kingdom Sized Vision with Kingdom Potential

Our leadership met for several months with the Howards to discuss their vision and at the end of 2023, we entered into an agreement with the Howards. They would transfer the property to us contingent on establishing a church on the property and working to spread the Kingdom of God.

Over the last year, we have put together a vision group, working in conjunction with our Land Trust trustees, to research how to bring the Howards’ vision to life. We have learned much during this time.

We learned there are over 4,000 new apartments that have been constructed or planned in the immediate vicinity. We also learned apartment dwellers are most often people new to the community and unconnected. Most do not belong to a church but are often searching for ways to feel part of a community.

A Neighborhood Church

At the same time, we have also learned about challenges with flooding downtown, zoning regulations, and the challenges of building on the property. However, the site is remarkable and we believe it is an amazing location to establish a church. Our desire is to move St. Andrew’s City Church to the site. And we are finally ready to do so.

Demi and Ellie Howard could easily have sold this piece of property and walked away from it with plenty of money for their retirement, their children, and their grandchildren. That is not who they are. God has given them a vision to use this property as a place to save souls and bring others to Christ. That is our shared vision and we are excited to do that together.

We have remained faithful to their desire to remain quiet about what we are doing over the past several months but we now all agree that as we move forward, we want to celebrate the news of this remarkable gift then roll up our sleeves and get to work on this mission.

Future Plans

Our vision team, headed by Bill Maddux and Mary Graham, are continuing to work on a plan for the property and how to move forward with relocating City Church to Romney Street. For now, City Church offices have moved to 50 Romney and Rusty Graves and his team work out of that location on most days. The Navigation Center, along with two private companies are leasing the other buildings from us for the near-term, while we plan the long-term vision for the property.

City Church will continue to hold services at 10:00 am at the Music Farm until plans are finalized and construction completed.

In the meantime, please pray for God to continue to guide us as we explore all our options and please join me and Jacqui in thanking Ellie and Demi Howard for their incredible gift.

In the family,
++Steve

The Most Rev’d Stephen D. Wood
Rector, St. Andrew’s Church