As luck, or perhaps divine providence, would have it, the new rector at St. George’s Anglican Church in downtown Colorado Springs has marched in the same footsteps as his longtime predecessor in an advantageous way.

The Rev. Joseph “Joey” Odell served in the military like the Rev. Donald Armstrong, who had been rector for 39 years before retiring in February.

The similarity doesn’t stop there.

“While I am obviously a different person than Rev. Armstrong, God somehow managed to find another former Army helicopter pilot from the Northeast to replace him,” said Odell, who took over March 1.

How the skills and knowledge transfer to his ministerial job may not be evident, but it’s as apparent to Odell as the work of the Holy Spirit.

Military helicopter pilots must be good at multitasking and focusing on the mission at hand. The same goes for church pastors.

The pilot’s attention is divided between navigating the chopper, scanning the skies for enemy presence, possibly firing missiles, rockets or machine guns, monitoring communication on five radios, consulting a map and checking in with supervisors. All without the assistance of Autopilot or hover-hold in the now retired Kiowa Warrior that Odell had operated.

Immediate and decisive responses are required when at the helm of a helicopter, which, unlike a plane, does not fly but rather beats the air into submission. Because any hesitation can cost you your life and perhaps that of others.

“Every decision you make while flying the aircraft is consequential and can be much more consequential than you think at the moment,” Odell said. “I think that’s very similar in the local church and has prepared me, as it prepared Rev. Armstrong, to make difficult, but not hasty, decisions.”

Successful church leadership takes the same kind of skills applied in different ways — working with staff, volunteers and the community to worship God, spiritually guide the masses and care for those who are suffering or celebrating.

“There’s a lot of things going on — do this now, do that later — to arrive at the best possible outcome,” Odell said. “My military service prepared me well for this role.”

So did schooling. After graduating from West Point and working as an aviation officer for 10 years, Odell left the Army to attend seminary, earn necessary credentialing and return as a military chaplain, a post he held for 17 years.

His last assignment as division chaplain for the 4^th Infantry Division at Fort Carson led him and his wife, Carrie, to fall in love with Colorado Springs.

Though a promotion to the rank of colonel came through, the Odells — and 10 of their 17 children who still live at home — didn’t want to make another move.

When Odell unexpectedly was asked to consider becoming the rector of St. George’s Anglican Church, where his family attended, he decided to exit the military to accept the position.

It’s been an unexpected but welcome change, he said.

Weathering change

St. George’s offers three services with collective attendance of 150 to 200 parishioners each Sunday.

The congregation has weathered tough times. Disagreement among several Protestant denominations over hierarchy allowing gay clergy to be ordained and the move toward sanctifying same-sex marriages led to schisms nationwide in the 2000s, including in Colorado Springs.

Restructuring of the Anglican Communion and fractures within the U.S. Episcopal Church, an arm of the Anglican Church of England, led to religiously conservative and liberal believers to dissociate and part ways.

Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, where Armstrong had been the rector, began its split in the first half 2007, with some clergy and parishioners leaving to form a more conservative congregation and some staying under the new direction on human sexuality.

But Armstrong had been placed on pastoral leave in December 2006, pending an investigation into allegations that he used church and trust money to fund his two children’s education between July 1999 and March 2006.

In May 2007, 93% of the congregation voted to leave the Episcopal diocese, a decision that prompted a two-year lawsuit over property rights.

The breakaway group lost the legal fight, and Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church remains with the Episcopal Church in Colorado and still occupies the building at 601 N. Tejon St.

The Episcopal Diocese defrocked Armstrong, and he became ordained as an orthodox Anglican priest.

St. George’s formed in 2009 espousing traditional conservative theology under the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, a diocese of the Church of Nigeria.

Parishioners concurrently faced another obstacle. Armstrong was indicted by a grand jury in May 2009 on 20 felony counts of allegedly embezzling $392,000 from church coffers. In September 2010, Armstrong pleaded “no contest” to one felony count, which many view as not admitting guilt. Under the plea agreement, he received four years’ probation.

“His people believed him and in him,” Odell said. “This has continued to be a healthy church all this time; the financial secretary, the wardens and vestry stuck with him. They recognized the whole thing was more about ideology than actual financial matters.”

In 2011, St. George’s purchased the historic Grace Episcopal Church building at 217 E. Pikes Peak Ave., where a portion of the 1874 structure still stands amid several additions.

The old church needed major cleanup and restoration back to holiness, Odell said. After several lives, the final business that had occupied it, a nightclub named Syn, lost its liquor license in 2010 after a street brawl with 100 people happened outside.

Today, anyone who walks into St. George’s immediately recognizes it’s a sacred, classic church that beams with shiny wooden floors, lancet windows, a nave and altar with padded Communion rails and religious artwork on the walls of the fellowship hall.

About 20% of St. George’s current parishioners were members of Grace and St. Stephen’s when the dissension occurred nearly 20 years ago, Odell said.

The majority are newer congregants who vary in age, background, culture, ethnicity, profession, economic status and interests but who embrace the church’s stance to promote “truth, goodness and beauty,” he said.

Under his leadership, Odell intends to “be more broadly ecumenical than we have been, to partner with other churches and local ministries.”

He’s taken steps to increase the church’s ministry to young families and promote intergenerational connections.

Along with aligning with local ministries such as Life Network and Mercy’s Gate, Odell is expanding the church’s involvement with other interfaith projects such as COSILoveYou, a Christian outreach organization, and The Merge network of pastors. Expect new paint and removal of tired carpeting in coming months.

Odell said he has no plans to change the Anglican worship style or longstanding traditions that he describes as looking somewhat Catholic but sounding Protestant. Services feature some of the style of Catholicism, but influences from the Protestant Reformation incorporate the Book of Common Prayer and other teachings.

The Odells’ children range in age from 2-year-old twin girls to adults in their early 30s. Six are adopted, and some have special needs.

The family selected St. George’s as their spiritual home because when their special-needs kids made special-needs noises during services from their perch in the back row, no one turned around and gave them the stink eye. Fellow parishioners just smiled and nodded encouragement.

That kind of support is what Odell hopes to spread as leader of the parish.