Our Mission Field

To understand our Parish, it is important to review the context of the city we call home. Lexington is in the Bluegrass region of central Kentucky with a population of 322,570. It is home to the University of Kentucky, which is also the largest employer in the area followed by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County government and area hospitals. Lexington is also known as the “Horse Capital of the World” due to the many horse farms surrounding the city and their connections to the horse industry. Kentucky is divided into 120 counties, and many people in the state identify with the county that they are from. Although Lexington has the amenities of a big city, many residents say that it feels like a “big small-town.”  Kentucky shares many characteristics with its midwestern neighbors, but the state is definitively Southern in culture and the people of the state tend to identify as such.

The statistics below are best viewed on a computer.

Lexington enjoys a relatively high level of affluence compared to the surrounding areas, and it is worth noting that Apostles Anglican Church is in the Chevy Chase neighborhood, which is in the southeast area of Lexington “next door” to the University of Kentucky campus and minutes away from downtown. This provides Apostles with a unique context. 

While Apostles is located within one of the more affluent neighborhoods of Lexington, our parishioners hail from neighborhoods all over the city and even outside of Lexington. Further, our parishioners come from a variety of religious backgrounds from “Cradle Episcopalians” to unchurched to Pentecostal to Baptist to non-denominational. In a recent survey, Apostles parishioners described the congregation as friendly, welcoming, diverse in thought yet unified in our commitment to Christ, generous, thoughtful, compassionate, and prayerful.

In keeping with Lexington demographics, many Apostles parishioners have a four year university degree or higher. A significant percentage of those parishioners have connections to Asbury University and Asbury Theological Seminary whether as students, graduates, or are on faculty/staff.

Apostles is a predominantly white parish with a desire to become more racially and ethnically diverse. Our new rector should share that desire and be willing to build bridges across racial and ethnic differences that go beyond tokenism. To that end, our new rector should maintain a sense of cultural humility and cultural awareness.

In the aftermath of COVID, Apostles has seen a rise in the number of young adults and young families with children in attendance. This has led to Apostles becoming more intergenerational; there are opportunities for parishioners of all ages to interact with each other whether chatting in the foyer over coffee and donuts, passing the peace, or at various all-church gatherings. Most importantly, all ages come together each Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist at both services.