Gill forms new Sarasota congregation

The Rev. Kenneth Gill is back at the pulpit again.

Gill, the former senior minister of Longboat Island Chapel, is the minister of a new church, the New Village Chapel, which is now holding services at 10 a.m. Sundays in the lobby of The Players Theatre in downtown Sarasota.

Gill said that the new congregation held its second public service Sunday and drew between 60 and 65 people. He describes the congregation as “nontraditional” and an “interspiritual community.”

“It’s for people of all faiths and it’s for people of no faiths,” he said.

Gill said that he quoted from the Christian gospel along with Hindu and Buddhist texts during Sunday’s sermon.

“My heritage is the Christian faith, but I try to draw on others,” he said. “My assumption is that whether people know it or not, everyone is on a spiritual path.”

Gill reached what both he and the chapel’s board described as a “separation agreement” in January. The agreement came after a growing schism in the church that Gill has said he believes boiled down to the chapel’s identity as an interfaith church. Some board members had questioned Gill’s leadership and accused him of pushing his own agenda, with some members expressing concerns about his suggestion of replacing a large cross on a piece of stained glass with an interfaith symbol that included a smaller cross.

The board voted 9-2 in December to hold a congregational vote about whether to retain Gill, who retained an attorney to represent him. On Jan. 10, the board voted to place Gill on paid administrative leave until a scheduled Jan. 29 congregational vote that would have required two-thirds of members in attendance to vote in favor of removing him. Chapel board members told the Longboat Observer at the time that the decision was made to keep peace within the congregation and that the board had to hire legal council after Gill retained an attorney.

Gill agreed to resign before the vote took place. However, after being placed on paid administrative leave, he and a group of congregants began meeting in private residences for Sunday services, from which the New Village Chapel grew. Gill said the “Village” in the name isn’t a reference to any particular location, although the congregation did consider meeting in the Cortez Village before securing its agreement with The Players Theatre.

Bobbie Banan, a 43-year chapel member who supported Gill throughout the conflicts at the chapel and has joined his new congregation, described the new church’s feeling as “casual but very reverent.”

“It feels good in the room,” she said.

Muriel Nunn, who has also joined the congregation, said that she likes Gill’s message.

“We believe in interfaith, and we believe that we all worship the same god,” she said. “We believe that we all need to be understanding of each others’ beliefs and reflective in each person’s spiritual journey.”