The parish was founded in 1881 by the Rev. N.F. Robinson in the neighboring Fernwood section of Upper Darby and relocated to its Lansdowne site for the first worship service in 1900.
Lack of parishioners and mounting expenses evidenced by the buckets in the side aisle to collect water from the leaking roof, estimated to cost $500,000, are the causes for its closure.
“We usually don’t have this many people,” Joseph Hypolite, senior warden of the church vestry, said of the estimated 100 persons in attendance versus the usual 30 to 40 people worshipping at Sunday services.
Oh this is very sad.
I grew up in Lansdowne from the time I was about a year old, until the year I turned 10. I was baptized at St. John (at age 3) and went to Sunday school there. I have some vivid memories of the place (it’s funny how certain things make a huge imprint on one’s mind). Chief among them is a cross decorated with early spring flowers (daffodils, crocuses, etc.) from parishioners’ yards at Easter. One of my best friends in third and fourth grade was the son of the assistant rector there.
We left Lansdowne in 1971, and moved to another state. I never went back, but drove by when in Philadelphia on a business trip. The town’s demographic’s have changed, and that, along with the general decline of mainline churches in general, and ECUSA in particular, make this news unsurprising (although still very sad).
Thanks for sharing the personal memories and your lament, Franz. Yes, when major demographic shifts occus in the neighborhood of a church, change, often radical change, is inevitable. But the death of a congregation is always optional.
And so is the death of a whole diocese or denomination. Unfortunately, some parish leaders, like the leaders of TEC in general, seem to have a death wish. I don’t know anything about this congregation, but it sure applies to TEC as a whole.
David Handy+
How true, David.
As the demographics changed, real evangelism could have made the place a very different, but still vibrant place. I am sure that there was a lack of local vision — probably too many people trying to do things the way they had always been done. And yes, the situation in the diocese and the national church certainly did not help.