Church of the Redeemer was conceived in April 2004, when seven local families were invited by a young priest named Thomas McKenzie to join with him and his wife Laura in a season of discernment and prayer about a new Anglican congregation in the heart of Nashville. Fr. Thomas shared his vision to plant a local church not beholden to the politics and theology of the American Episcopal Church, but nevertheless to remain part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Church of the Redeemer was conceived in April 2004, when seven local families were invited by a young priest named Thomas McKenzie to join him and his wife Laura in a season of discernment and prayer about a new Anglican congregation in the heart of Nashville. Fr. Thomas shared his vision to plant a local church not beholden to the politics and theology of the American Episcopal Church, but nevertheless to remain part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.
As that earliest group continued to meet, this small cluster of Nashvillians came to believe that God was calling them to focus on Jesus’ fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophetic vision – “to bring good news to the poor… to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind… to let the oppressed go free… to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” – in short: to live and proclaim the redeeming love of God made real in Jesus Christ. From this vision came the founding of Church of the Redeemer.
As the years went on, Redeemer blossomed and flourished. In 2014, we celebrated our 10th anniversary as a church, by then a fully established, thriving Anglican congregation. We grew from a small home group of seven families to a church with 350 people worshiping on a Sunday morning. At times, that number has been even higher, leading the congregation to plant several other Anglican churches in the Nashville area.
Then, suddenly, on August 23, 2021, the shepherd of our church was taken from us. Fr. Thomas and his eldest child were killed in a car crash shortly after embarking on a trip out West. Redeemer displayed remarkable health in coping with the tragedy, but this loss marked us; we know well not only how to rejoice together, but also how to grieve deeply. While Thomas is no longer with us in the flesh, the vision that he established remains an integral part of who we are today, and we continue to give God thanks for his and his family’s life and ministry.
After Fr. Thomas’s death in 2021, we were guided by our Interim Bishop, Martyn Minns, and our Interim Rector, Kenny Benge, through a lengthy period of mourning and restabilization. Then, after many more months of careful, prayerful discernment, in February 2023, Church of the Redeemer joyfully welcomed our second permanent Rector, Fr. Andrew DeFusco, under whose leadership we continue to flourish today. Now in our third decade of life together as a congregation, we rejoice to give God thanks.
We worship together on Sundays at 9:00am and 10:45am at 920 Caldwell Lane in Nashville, Tennessee.
The 9:00am service is streamed live on our Facebook page.
(615) 383-9888
office@redeemer-nashville.net
920 Caldwell Lane
Nashville, TN
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