St Helena’s Anglican Church — Attraction in Beaufort

The church and the grounds are unparalleled, and I would encourage anyone to attend services to experience the setting.

My four children and I attended for about a year. It is a beautiful setting, I love the Anglican services, and the music is divine.

I cannot say that if I had to do it again, I would have joined a different church in the Beaufort area, because we have some lovely memories, and my youngest child was baptized at the church.

However, an upsetting incident with an unethical staff member caused me to stop attending. A church staff member who does community outreach asked me out for coffee (as part of community outreach), and we started texting. I was going through a stressful time (moving with my four kids and my 88-year-old mother), and I confided in this church staff member and asked for prayers.

She not only betrayed my confidence, she mischaracterized my situation to other church staff, and solicited money from the church on my behalf (!)- without my knowledge or consent (!).

I was stressed out about finding a rental and texted a throwaway line, hyperbole, like "I'm going to end up sleeping in my car."

I received zero words of consolation or prayer, which is what I wanted and asked for. Instead, the next day I received a text from this person telling me that she had told church staff I was sleeping in my car and that they said they could put me up in a hotel for a couple nights. That's not what I asked for or needed. I was asking for prayer that I found a rental, not money for a couple nights in a hotel.

I could not believe it. I was looking at her text like, Wow, ok, so that spun out of control very quickly. I thought it was because I was Irish-Catholic, or a single mother, or something. I stopped attending services, since I was busy and stressed out moving my large family of dependents (with no help), and this completely unethical gossip was going around telling people at church I was sleeping in my car.

Neither she nor anyone else at the church followed up with me to see how our move went. Nobody noticed or cared when we stopped attending.

Months after I moved I complained to church leadership about this weird incident. They issued a "I'm sorry you feel that way" apology and basically didn't care. Oh, and after I complained to church leadership, I got a follow-up text from this woman, pretending to ask how we were doing, lol. My response, I'm afraid, was rather un-Christian.

The entire situation happened by text, and I have all the texts. Not that anyone cares.

So, although my family had some beautiful experiences in this church, and the church building itself is awe-inspiring and sacred and on hallowed ground, my impression is unfortunately not positive. Their impression of me is apparently that I'm hitting them up for money while living in my car, so I have a feeling the sentiment is mutual lol.

After this incident happened, I started thinking about my time there, and the people I met there, and I realized it's more like a country club than a church, and I was actually probably naive to confide in their outreach person- but she reached out to me first. She initiated contact as a church representative, and I trusted the church.

I have prayed a lot about whether to leave a review relating my experience or not. If I didn't care about the church, and church in general, and I didn't think the way I was treated in my situation by a church representative was wrong, I wouldn't say anything. Here you go, God, best effort according to my conscience, do...

I would like to thank the gentleman that gave my wife and I a tour through the cemetery. I can't recall his name but he was from the Rochester NY vicinity. He was very kind and knowledgeable regarding the cemetery and church history. He took his time and answered any questions we had, all on his own time. He is definitely an asset to the church and the city of Beaufort. THANK YOU NERY...

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