The River Anglican Church is a Christ-centered faith community with contemporary worship rooted in ancient practices.
The mission of The River Church is
To Know, Follow, and Share Jesus, together.
We want everyone to come to know Jesus, to learn to follow Him, and to go and share Jesus. We don’t do this alone; we do it together.
The River Anglican Church dreams of being a church that is attractive to a broken world, lives out an authentic faith in Christ, and sends people out equipped and empowered for God’s work.
Our beliefs are summed up in the historic creeds of the Church - the Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds - and we adhere to the 39 Articles of Religion.
The River Anglican Church is a part of The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA), which unites more than 120,000 Anglicans and nearly 1,000 congregations across the United States, Mexico, and Canada into a single Church.
The ACNA is a member of The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON).
We are led by The Most Rev. Stephen D. Wood, our archbishop. On a more regional level, we are a part of the Diocese of Christ Our Hope, led by Bishop Alan Hawkins.
Our Story
The River Anglican Church began as a church plant of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Roanoke, Virginia, meeting in the basement of Jim Sallie’s home. Jim served as the church pastor until he and his wife, Becci, moved on to plant an Anglican Church in Parkersburg, West Virginia.
The River congregation continued to grow, becoming a self-supporting, independent church. Jonathan Tagg accepted the call to serve as Rector (lead pastor) in 2009 and continues to serve in this position.
Over the years, The River met in a variety of borrowed spaces - Kipps Elementary School, the now-razed Days Inn, and the Custom Catering building - until moving in 2015 to the current location on Roanoke Street, sharing the facility owned by the Blacksburg First Church of God.
The River has been blessed to share this facility for quite a few years but, as it is a borrowed space, we are challenged by what we can do and when we can do it in a shared facility. We are currently in a capital campaign, the Imagine Initiative, to raise funds toward securing a permanent facility.
