The Rev. J. Michael Bowhay
Rector

Fr. Michael Bowhay came to Fernandina Beach by way of California. As a third-generation Californian, he had not even heard of Fernandina Beach, Florida. So how did he end up at Holy Trinity Anglican?

As a youth, Fr. Bowhay attended the Congregationalist Church and made a profession of faith in Jesus as his Savior and Lord at a church camp in his seventh grade summer. He confirmed his commitment the following summer. A year after that, the tragic death of a friend, coupled with a biting fundamentalist sermon that questioned his friend’s eternal destination, led Michael to make some changes.

“My mother had begun playing the organ at an Episcopal Church. I told her I wanted to go to that church with her.” The church was a small one, and many Sundays were Morning Prayer, but Bowhay fell in love with the beauty and serenity of the Episcopal liturgy.

Following high school, he earned a degree in Zoology at the University of California. Adding several years of graduate studies, he ended up spending nine years in the Navy as an aerospace physiologist, training pilots and aircrews regarding the physiological and survival aspects of flight — and teaching them how their safety was impacted by their understanding and use of in-flight and post-flight survival equipment.

Out of the Navy, Bowhay was recruited by his brother to enter the field of financial management. In this second career, he spent 30 years. At the age of 50, he woke up with a ringing in his ears (tinnitus) and an increasing loss of hearing acuity. He began to sense he might have a vocation to the ordained ministry, comically wondering if God was taking his hearing away since he hadn’t listened to his calling. It would take a few more years, though, and the honest assessment of a close friend, to send him to The Theological College of St. Joseph of Arimathea, the seminary of the Anglican Province of Christ the King.

Being one of the oldest of the seminary students, getting back into the rhythm of reading “lots of dull stuff,” and spending hours on older knees on a rock floor were not easy tasks, but the realization that the Holy Spirit was with him transformed the experience into a powerful one. At the end of his first year, the bishop ordained him a deacon so that he might minister in a small church in the Napa Valley. Ordained as a priest in December of 1999, Fr. Bowhay served that church for three and one half years, overseeing tremendous growth there. At the end of his tenure, he felt it was time to “retire,” but God obviously had other plans for him.

The Lord provided an opportunity for him to minister at a campground near Big Sur, preaching and celebrating the Eucharist once per month for nine months of the year and weekly during the summer months. Then he met Bishop Grote (the Bishop Ordinary of the Diocese of Mid-America of the Reformed Episcopal Church) who asked if he’d be willing to minister to a brand-new Anglican congregation, St. Andrew’s, at Signal Mountain, Tennessee. Bowhay took the job and was there for nearly a year.

His plan was to return to the Monterey Peninsula in California and then maybe to return to a church in the Southeast (as in, Savannah, Georgia), but God again had other plans in store. There was a new Anglican church in Fernandina Beach, Florida. Would he be interested in the job as rector?

“My first interview was with the vestry at the Joel and Jo Clark’s house in a driving rainstorm. I knew right away that God was calling me to be here.” Offered the job, he said “Yes.” First, though, he had to fly back to California to find out whether or not his lovely sweetheart Alice was interested in marrying him. The answer there was “Yes,” too.

Fr. Bowhay’s first service as Rector of Holy Trinity Anglican, Fernandina Beach, was the first Sunday of Advent, 2007. In 2008, he witnessed the building of the church’s first worship facility. Now he looks forward to the sometime-in-the-near-future building of the Parish Hall.

In 2011 the parish and Father Michael have been received into the Anglican Province of America and are enjoying a close relationship with Bishop Grundorf.

Says Bowhay of this pastorate, “One of the greatest gifts God has ever given me is to come here. I’m having a great life. My entire life: my childhood, my education, my family, the Navy, my experiences in a brokerage firm… I’ve been richly blessed, but I can truly say that being here takes the cake. Though there’s certainly a tug toward my two sons, a step-daughter and six grandchildren who aren’t close by, there’s a richness in our friendships here.

“Seeing the church growing, being able to celebrate the Eucharist, preach and to administer the sacrament each Sunday are the richest experiences I’ve ever had. I love this little island and the people here and I’m grateful for every day.”