Rev. Hammond to Become Bishop

The Rev. Reginald Hammond, rector of St. George’s Anglican Church in Ventura, will be elevated to bishop of the Anglican faith next week.

The service of consecration, open to the public, will be held at 3 p.m. April 29 in the church at 6300 Telephone Road.

In accordance with Anglican tradition, four bishops will begin the ceremony and five bishops--including the newly consecrated Hammond--will emerge at its conclusion.

Hammond, 82, comes from a family of Episcopal priests, his father having been the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Ventura from 1927 to 1948.

All four of Hammond’s brothers, two of whom survive, also served long careers as Episcopal priests.

The Anglican Orthodox Church is a Protestant denomination that replicates the Episcopal Church as it existed before the 1960s, Hammond explained.

The 1928 Book of Common Prayer is followed as the liturgical guide throughout the Anglican Orthodox Church. St. George’s continues the tradition of the “low” Episcopal Church, also using the King James Version of the Bible.

Most Anglican members are former Episcopalians who left that denomination as its beliefs and rituals were restructured and liberalized over the last quarter century.

“We believe in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and the 1948 hymn books, while Episcopalians look at them as interesting historical documents,” Hammond said.

The Most Rev. Robert J. Godfrey, archbishop of the worldwide Orthodox Anglican Communion and presiding bishop of its U.S.-based Episcopal Orthodox Church, will be the chief consecrator. Other consecrators will be Bishops Scott McLaughlin of Winston-Salem, N.C., Richard Boyce of Seattle and Hesbron Njera of Kenya.

Godfrey is soon to retire and McLaughlin will take his place, Hammond said.

That will make Hammond one of only two bishops in his church’s jurisdiction. Many other Anglican churches have broken away from the Episcopal Church, but they fall under a different jurisdiction, Hammond said.

Some of the other bishops participating in the event come from other jurisdictions, he said.

Having another bishop, especially on the West Coast, will make a big difference when people are confirmed and priests are ordained, Hammond said.

In the past, a bishop would have traveled from the East Coast for such ceremonies, he said.

Hammond will preside over the Ventura congregation of about 80 members and another congregation in Alaska, he said.

Before joining his father and brothers in the Anglican priesthood two years ago, Hammond had a career as an educator. The graduate of Ventura High School received his undergraduate degrees from UC Santa Barbara and his master’s and doctoral degrees from UCLA.

He served as a teacher, principal and superintendent in several California districts before moving to Fillmore, where he now resides.

Hammond was one of 50 people featured in Tom Brokaw’s best-selling book, “The Greatest Generation,” as an American who grew up during the Depression and served in World War II.

Hammond, one of six children, was a teenager during the Depression. He married his high school classmate, Margery MacPherson, before serving in the Army during World War II. The couple have been married for 58 years and have two sons, seven grandchildren and one great-grandson.

“It was because of the news of my ordination going over the wire that Tom Brokaw’s researchers heard about me and contacted me to be in his book,” Hammond said. “It was a distinct honor that a million other people could’ve just as well done.”

Anglicans from Thousand Oaks to Santa Barbara and clergy throughout the county, regardless of denomination, are invited to attend. Vested clergy of every denomination are invited to join in the processional and sit as a body to support the bishop elect’s consecration to the Episcopacy.