A 150-Year Congregation on Indian Rocks Road
On the corner of Wilcox Road and Indian Rocks Road in Largo, Anona United Methodist Church has been gathering generations of worshipers for more than a century and a half. The church's simple promise - Love God, Love Neighbor, Transform Lives - shows up in everything from its three Sunday worship services to its Gold Seal preschool, its quilt ministry, and its partnerships with Habitat for Humanity and Hope Villages of America. A campus that includes a sanctuary, a contemporary Worship Center, a chapel library, Wesley Hall, and the Anona Child Development Center has made this congregation a steady presence for families throughout Pinellas County.
Three Sunday Morning Services
Sunday at Anona begins with two Traditional Worship services in the Traditional Sanctuary at 8:15 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Various choirs alternate leading the services, with piano or organ accompaniment and seasonal orchestra and bells. The atmosphere is intentionally informal - the church tells visitors that dress is casual and people often arrive in flip-flops and beach shorts. Children are part of the community, too: parents are invited to bring them into worship.
At 9:30 a.m., the Contemporary Service takes over the Worship Center. The Anona Contemporary Band leads the music and the teaching is designed to feel accessible for newcomers and long-time attenders alike. A livestream of all services is available, with the broadcast going live fifteen minutes before each service time.
Anona Kids and Anona Little Kids
Children have their own space at 9:30 a.m. Anona Kids meets in Wesley Hall for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The hour includes large-group singing and games, a Bible story, and small groups broken out by grade level, led by volunteer leaders each Sunday.
Younger children - six weeks through VPK - are cared for in the Anona Little Kids nursery in Room 302. Background-screened caregivers run the program, with a curriculum built around a monthly bottom line so children take home a simple idea such as kindness, confidence, or love.
On Wednesday afternoons, the children's music ministry continues with the Carol Choir for four-year-olds through kindergartners (4:00-4:30 p.m.), the Kids Choir for first through fifth graders (4:30-5:30 p.m.), and the Chime Choir (5:10-5:30 p.m.). The choirs prepare seasonal music for worship and the annual Palm Sunday performances.
Anona Youth on Sunday Evenings
Sunday nights belong to Anona Youth, a program for students in grades six through twelve that runs from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. Students check in at the main Indian Rocks Road entrance and gather for snacks, free time, games, and worship led by a youth band, followed by a group message and small-group discussions. Youth Director Megan Trunzo and a team of adult small-group leaders walk alongside students through the ups and downs of middle school, high school, and faith.
Anona Child Development Center
Across the same campus, Anona Child Development Center (ACDC) has been a trusted early-learning program for more than fifty years. The center holds Gold Seal designation from the Florida Department of Children and Families and is nationally accredited by the Christian Preschool Association (formerly the United Methodist Association of Preschools) continuously since 1986.
Programs serve children from one-year-olds through fifth grade. The preschool offers half-day and full-day options for one-, two-, and three-year-olds, plus a free Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) program with extended full-day care available. Frog Street curriculum and Conscious Discipline strategies - a relationship-based approach the school has practiced for over twenty-five years - guide each classroom. Children gather for Chapel twice a month, and VPK students present a Nativity Play each year.
For elementary-age students, ACDC offers before- and after-care with transportation to and from local schools. Two staff members travel on each bus - a driver and a monitor - and the program includes seasonal camps (spring, summer, and winter), in-service days, field trips, homework help, and enrichment activities like music lessons, dance, choir, and bells and chimes through the Anona Academy of Arts.
Worship Arts: Bands, Choirs, Bells, and Media
Music is woven throughout Anona's worship life. The Sanctuary Choir and Summer Choir lead the traditional services; the Anona Contemporary Band leads the contemporary service; and the King's Ringers bell choir plays seasonally. The Anona Intergenerational Choir teaches expressive and artistic sign language, and an orchestra plays seasonally for worship and concerts.
The Anona Media Arts team runs the technology for the Traditional Sanctuary, the Worship Center, the Youth Program, and Anona Kids in the Anona Theater. The team also handles special-event video, field production, post-production, podcasting, graphic design, and photography. No prior experience is required to join - the group trains and mentors each volunteer.
The Academy of the Arts
Music education extends beyond Sunday morning through the Anona Academy of the Arts, a ministry of the Music Department that has been offering lessons since 1994. Sandy Ross, who teaches lessons on piano, guitar, bass, ukulele, banjo, and music theory and composition, leads the program. Lessons are held on campus or via Zoom for a half-hour each week at $20 per half-hour, with a sibling discount. Some instruments are available to borrow, and preschool or after-school students can be escorted to and from lessons by their teachers when parents sign a release form.
Adults: Small Groups, Studies, and Fellowship
Anona offers a rich menu of adult ministries. The F.A.S.T. Crowd (Fellowship And Service Together) Sunday school meets at 9:30 a.m. in Room 110 and via Zoom, with Bible study based on the previous week's sermon and a class made up largely of individuals and couples from their forties up to retirees.
Women's Bible Study meets Tuesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. and Thursday mornings at 10:00 a.m. in Room 110 and on Zoom. The current study is Determined: Living like Jesus in Every Moment, A Study of Luke by Heather M. Dixon. Caffeine and Conversation, a women's Zoom gathering hosted by Kathy Bell and Mary Watson, meets Mondays at 10:00 a.m. Mary Fellowship, a women's group with devotions, prayer, and a special program, meets the second Thursday of the month by Zoom. Men gather on Thursday mornings at 10:30 a.m. for the Men's Bible Study in the Chapel Library and on Zoom, led by Mike Zagorac, and bi-monthly Thursday evenings for Iron Sharpens Iron, a men's fellowship with Bible study, outings, and service projects. Art and Soul with Lynda and Nicole, an open crafting evening for adults, meets the first and third Tuesdays at 6:00 p.m. in Wesley Hall.
The Anona Book Club gathers the fourth Sunday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the Chapel Library. The reading list rotates through novels and nonfiction, with recent picks including The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen, Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, A Land Remembered by Patrick D. Smith, and The Christmas Pearl by Dorothea Benton Frank. Anona Outdoors offers seasonal events designed to get members outside the church walls.
Walk15 with Molly, an aerobics class based on Leslie Sansone's Walk at Home programs, meets Wednesdays at 9:00 a.m. in Wesley Hall and Thursdays at 6:00 p.m. in the Chapel Conference Room. The thirty-minute workout is adaptable to all fitness levels.
The Sew n' Sews meet Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m. in Wesley Hall to make prayer quilts. No sewing experience is required, and the ministry has delivered more than 3,000 hand-tied quilts to people struggling with illness. Each quilt is knotted and prayed over by the congregation on Sunday mornings.
Young Adults
Anona Young Adults welcomes college students, trade-school students, those in early careers, and military members. Friends in Faith Nights meets the second Monday of the month from 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. for conversation, devotions, prayer, and relevant topics. Fuel Up Sundays gathers the fourth Sunday of each month for the 11:00 a.m. worship service followed by brunch.
Stephen Ministry
Stephen Ministry provides one-to-one care for people walking through grief, divorce, job loss, chronic or terminal illness, or relocation. Stephen Ministers are trained members of the congregation who serve individuals across the Largo area and Pinellas County, using materials from Stephen Ministries in St. Louis.
Pinecrest Place Worship
Anona extends its ministry beyond the campus with a weekly 3:00 p.m. Pinecrest Place Worship service held in the Serendipity Room at Elison Senior Living of Pinecrest. This off-campus service invites residents, families, and friends to sing, pray, share concerns and joys, and hear a scriptural message in a smaller, intergenerational setting.
Four Pillars of Local Mission
Anona organizes local outreach around four pillars. Under Heart, the church partners with public schools, Habitat for Humanity, Hope Villages of America, Clothes to Kids, and Ridgecrest Elementary to support children and youth. Members mentor through the Panther Pals reading tutor program, run clothing drives for Clothes to Kids, sew dresses and shorts for children locally and abroad, and support the HEAT program for teens experiencing homelessness.
Hunger ministry focuses on food insecurity. Anona collects for Hope Villages of America's SOUPer Bowl, Christmas in July, and Halloweentown drives, while the children's ministry packs weekend food sacks through Pack-a-Sack for students at two elementary schools.
Housing ministry supports Habitat for Humanity through the annual Faith Build and a second-Saturday volunteer team, collects supplies and funds for the Homeless Empowerment Program (HEP), directs fifth-Sunday giving and apportionment support to Residing Hope (formerly Children's Home), and partners with Shepherd's Village to support single-mom apartments.
Helping ministry covers a wide range of partnerships: the Anona Visitation Ministry for members unable to attend in person, support for three partner churches in Cuba (including Iglesia Metodista de Amarillas and Iglesia Metodista de Cárdenas), DEI initiatives, Fresh Start accountability for men and women in court-ordered programs, missionary support for the Quessua Mission in East Angola, Senior Connections for assisted-living residents, and AMP (Anona's Micah Project) for action on social-justice issues.
Hands of Healing, a ministry committed to medical care for those without access, runs The Anona Thrift Shoppe at 12025 Indian Rocks Road in the Harbor Crest shopping center across from Publix in Largo. The shop helps fund medical mission trips and supplies.
Global Partners
Beyond Cuba and Angola, Anona's global mission emphasizes prayer, financial support, and ongoing relationship with partner congregations and missionaries. Members support the school and hospital at Quessua Mission, and mission teams travel to Cuba to deliver medications and hard-to-find items for children and seniors.
What Anona Believes
Anona United Methodist Church belongs to the Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. The church teaches that God is one, revealed in three persons; that salvation comes through Jesus Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection demonstrate God's redeeming love; and that the Holy Spirit is God's present activity in the world. The Bible is the primary authority for faith and practice. Core values include loving God and searching Scripture, welcoming and serving all people, especially the poor and marginalized, worshiping with joy, being changed by the Holy Spirit, helping changed people change their communities, helping every disciple discover their gifts, sharing faith in authentic relationships, and holding one another accountable for discipleship.
Pastors, Staff, and Mission
Rev. Dr. Latricia Scriven serves as Senior Pastor, with Rev. Jeremy Herrington as Associate Pastor. Nan Hubbell serves as Pinecrest Pastor. The leadership team includes Kim Herrington as Director of Contemporary Worship, Janet Sprecher leading handbells, Sandy Ross teaching at the Academy of the Arts, Gideon Alfred as Director of Technical Arts with Matthew Wieder as Assistant Technical Director, Mindy Picardo as Director of Kids Ministries, Jen Bryant as Director of Little Kids Ministry, Megan Trunzo as Director of Student Ministry, Jackie Evans as Director of Missions, Marion Denton as Director of the Anona Child Development Center, and Scott Magness as Director of Facilities, Health and Safety.
The mission is captured in three short sentences on the front of the building: Love God. Love Neighbor. Transform Lives. Whether visitors come for a Sunday service, a weekday small group, a tour of the preschool, or a mission project, Anona United Methodist Church offers a place to belong at every age and stage.