There are 18 summer chapels in the Diocese of Maine. Summer chapels are interesting communities. They’re not congregations in the strict sense: they have no members and elect no officers, and they’re not churches in union with the Diocese of Maine. Most are private trusts or foundations or family chapels. They were founded by a family or an Episcopal priest or bishop for the convenience and benefit of family and friends.
And yet they are Episcopal churches. They use the Book of Common Prayer and are served by Episcopal clergy. They are often quite involved in mission work and raise money both for the their communities and for the diocese. Some have been holding services for 100 years or more. Their congregants are devoted. Families have been attending them for generations and have returned for baptisms, marriages and even burials.
Well, as one of those summer folk, certainly this is an interesting feature of Maine church culture. It is leftover from an era prior to the airplane era when people (mainly wealthy folk) had places where they went for summer year after year instead of taking vacation trips to exotic places. Bar Harbor used to be a summer resident community; now it’s a tourist destination.
However, summer churches are difficult economic operations. Churches that are open for only 3 months are hard to operate and hard to grow. Sometimes they are appurtentant to year-round churches, but even so, the building is part of the church experience and it’s hard to get people to join churches where the building closes and the people leave in September.
I’m a little skeptical of his remark that these churches are involved in mission work.
Hey, does the PB and DBBeers know about these? Have they claimed them in the non-existent hierarchal name of the “canons” of convenience and legal funding?
Wow, a whole new resource just waiting to be sued.
And, on the whole, I’m sure they do as much mission work as the ECUSA/TEC does for Jesus(see evangelism budget). I rather doubt they do as much for the gay agenda, though. And probably not as much as the MDGs … line item.
A similar church in the Adirondacks: St Johns in the Wilderness, Paul Smiths, NY.
Sadly, most of the Episcopal churches that served the year-round residents in the neighboring towns closed in the 1970s and 80s as the congregations grew older and fewer, young people left the area to find work, and newcomers came to escape “Establishment.”
“St. XYZ in the Wilderness”
How appropriate for an outlet of EPAC.