At St. James Episcopal Church in Bowie, children are free to roam during services, and they often amble up to the altar and hold the priest’s hand.
At St. George’s Episcopal, three miles down Lanham Severn Road in Glenn Dale, the congregation is an eclectic, quirky collective of straight and gay men and women of various races.
Neither Episcopal parish in northern Prince George’s County wants to sacrifice the factors that make it special. But against the backdrop of the recession, which has tightened parishioners’ pockets and diminished the value of the church’s national endowments, banding together has emerged as the only viable option for the survival of St. James, the smaller of the two churches with just 38 parishioners.
When that became clear to the Rev. Anne-Marie Jeffery, St. James’s rector (the Episcopal equivalent of a pastor), she reached out to St. George’s. Since April, the two parishes have been exploring a merger by having integrated services mostly at St. George’s, which is more modern and has a following of about 70.
“Around 1999, the Episcopal Diocese of Washington put pressure on smaller churches to try to expand, Jeffery said. St. James had a sizable nest egg but quickly spent it to bring in a rector and implement programs that failed to attract new parishioners. ”
I’d love to know what those programs were. It might save a lot of other congregations from pursuing the same costly blind alleys. It might also put a lot of “church growth consultants” out of business. I also wonder how many of the programs for which they might have spent $50,000 a year for six years involved re-heating those same failed ideas.
[blockquote]At St. George’s Episcopal, three miles down Lanham Severn Road in Glenn Dale, the congregation is an eclectic, quirky collective of straight and gay men and women of various races. [/blockquote]This is the parish where the rector Rev. Michael Hopkins “married” his partner John Clinton Bradley in a ceremony performed by Bishop John Chane. Hopkins was the national Intergrity President at the time. Susan Russell now has that position.
… but … but … I thought all that creative approaches to sexuality was supposed to fill the churches …
Indeed, #2, it looks like St. George has lost about 1/3 of its ASA since the blessed event. Gamaliel had a point, it seems.
I’m sure that the ongoing “new thing” will be most helpful to church growth!
Another symptom of TEC’s “growth.” Highly symptomatic of the rot within.
Thanks, Piedmont (#2), for pointing out that very signficant fact of recent history. Good catch.
Thanks also to Jeffersonian (#4) for bringing out the fact that St. Geroge’s has lost 1/3 of its people since Integrity’s Michael Hopkins+ “tied the knot” with his gay lover.
FWIW, such mergers of two weak congregations seldom work well, especially when they are as different as these two churches seem to be. In church math, 2 + 1 doesn’t always = 3. In a case like this, it often equals 2 and 1/4. In Lyle Schaller’s helpful categorization of congregations by size (see his marvelous book on church self-appraisal, [b]Looking in the Mirror[/b]), St. James would
a cat (under 40 ASA), while St. George’s would be a collie (about 40 to 125 ASA). Naive denominational leaders often try to get a cat and a dog to merge, and then wonder why this doesn’t work!
David Handy+
RE: “Indeed, #2, it looks like St. George has lost about 1/3 of its ASA since the blessed event.”
Yeh — but that’s the price of being prophetic — getting rid of all the bigots and homophobes. ; > )
The current rector is a partnered lesbian.
http://www.stgeo.org/connieReinhardt.shtml%5Bblockquote%5D Connie grew up in New Hampshire and is a graduate of Wellesley College. … [/blockquote]
[blockquote],,,and the Bishop of the Diocese of New Hampshire ordained her a deacon in May of 1998 and a priest in December of 1998. [/blockquote]
[blockquote]Connie and her partner, Emma, have been together for 5 years. [/blockquote]
Well, the real pain comes at the end of the item. Who could not fail to be moved by the octogenarian lady showing the altar made by another parishioner from wood he himself hued and seasoned in memory of infant children who had died; and the information that the chalice was made from personal silver donated and melted down. Devotion to a place is not necessarily separate from a commitment in living faith to Christ. How heart-rending to think of the place shuttered and sold.
I agree with some of the comments above about consultants and programs. The advice of the consultant (‘downsize, grow or merge’) sounds, err, blindingly obvious. How money is wasted on such things!
#2 I assume you have looked at data found in the Episcopal Church Development site: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/growth_60791_ENG_HTM.htm
That shows how both parishes topped off in the period of 2003 and 2004 and each experienced decline in participation. The declines are not related one bit to the blessing of Michael and John. Nor can they be attributed to the fact that St. George’s has an out lesbian woman as its current rector. The declines represent the demographic changes in that area of Prince George’s County. You would see similar trends with the neighboring churches for other denominations, notably the Lutheran Church about four miles from St. George’s, the United Methodist congregation that is located in between St. George’s and St. James, and even the Baptist church about a mile down the road from St. George’s.
#7 What produces your assumption that both parishes are weak? While there has been a decline in ASA numbers for each, there is a strong sense of community within each, and reaching out through the dialogue process involved with the merger exploration. Communities form around the compassion that members have for one another, shared commitment to mission, and deep wells of faith. These values also guide the measure of empathy and concern for the grieving that long-time members of St. James feel, #10.
The article overplays identity politics because that is the larger frame in which people perceive the Episcopal church. How many newspaper stories has anyone read from mainstream press in the last several years that did not evoke images of schism and cite the ordination of Bishop Gene Robinson?