Chapter 1 - Hope Chapel

As a young undergrad at UT, John had an experience of God which defined the rest of his life. After marriage and relocation to Austin, he and Ann were seeking for a Spirit-filled Christian community. They joined The Well, a Jesus people coffeehouse, in the 1970s, where he served as an elder. When The Well dissolved, John and Ann went with many friends to St. David’s Episcopal Church, where they primarily attended the “five-o’clock service” folk mass. They then followed Thomas and Christina to Hope Chapel, which became a home church for several decades, and where he was ordained as a deacon by Dan Davis in the late 1980’s.

He and Ann never lost their connection with the Anglican church, often attending Christ Church Anglican in Austin and then becoming members of Christ Church Anglican in Waco after their move there. The move to McGregor, south of Waco, was for mutual care – John and Ann caring for the Brydon family after their home was destroyed by fire, then the Brydon family caring for him as his faculties began to fail. At the end of his life, living with his daughter Amy and her family, John reconnected with his Anabaptist leanings through their membership in the Homestead Heritage community – which provided Dad with lively services and loving pastoral care, especially in his final months.