Church rises from 'ashes' of old Syn nightclub

"They sat in plastic chairs amid the sawdust and unfinished floorboards, chipped paint and bare plaster. All were in their Sunday best, about 200 people listening to the first prayer said in the new home of St. George’s Anglican Church.

“Drive from this place those demons that have possessed its inhabitants,” boomed the voice of the Rev. Don Armstrong. “Restore this place to its former sanctity and purpose.”

There was a bit of irony to Armstrong’s prayer, a double-meaning to both building and man.

In 2005, the building at 217 E. Pikes Peak Ave., erected as an Episcopal church in 1873, was resurrected as Club Eden, a nightclub. In 2006, Armstrong, then the rector of Grace and St. Stephens Episcopal Church, was placed on leave by the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado. The group later claimed he embezzled $392,000 in church funds, and years of legal action followed.

Armstrong left the Episcopal church and formed St. George’s, and for two years has rented space at the former Renaissance Academy to hold Sunday mass...." To read more, click here.