She sings the litany. He delivers the sermon.
It is Sunday morning at All Saints Episcopal Church in Sacramento and both the Revs. Michael and Betsey Monnot preside over the worship services, one of several ways the church keeps down expenses.
“We trade off duties every week,” said Betsey Monnot.
The two priests, who are married and have two children and another due in three weeks, said the church could afford one full-time clergyperson. So they agreed to job-share and serve as co-rectors.
“When you’re a small church, you have to be creative,” said Michael Monnot.
I’m sure the U2 mass will have folks knocking down the doors to join the parish.
On the other hand, in that Diocese the congregations which are not shrinking, with decent revenues, Sunday Schools and youth ministries tend to be the more orthodox ones. In ten years most of the liberals will have drifted off or died of old age, their churches will have been closed and sold, and the orthodox will be most of who’s left.
But, things are probably very peaceful. No annoying clashes over theology.
Seriously though, this all is heartrendingly painful to watch a once vibrant denomination go into such a death spiral over few years time. Never mind who caused it or why, it’s painful.
[blockquote] . . . the church could afford one full-time clergyperson. So they agreed to job-share and serve as co-rectors. [/blockquote]
ASA barely over 50 and they somehow need two priests? I know of larger parishes with just one priest and a full schedule not just on Sundays but weekdays too. What do these folks do all day?
And then there’s my RC parish – 1,200 families and one priest (and two deacons)
I thought it interesting that Bishop Beisner actually admitted that +Robinson’s consecration cause some of the 18% ASA decline in 10 years.
To attract people, TEC needs to be attractive. The fighting and lawsuits are not attractive. We also need to call people out of themselves and out of their self-focus and self-defined good. We need to call them to die to self and to be raised to new life in Jesus Christ.
But that crude salvationism is passe among our denominational leadership – thus the declining numbers and death spiral of many congregations and dioceses.
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
From the February 11, 2010 issue of the Diocesan clergy newsletter (go to diocesan website and look for either the “Latest Aurora Clergy E-News†or if its no longer there, go to “View e-Newsletter Archive hereâ€).
You need look no further than the actions of your General Convention and your past three Presiding Bishops for the causes of your church’s distress.
jamesw (#7),
Thanks for posting the revealing letter. At least Canon Bobbi admits the crisis is real, although the proposed remedy (a weak institutional committee) is ridiculously inadequate.
Deacon Phil (#6),
As usual, you’re right on target.
David Handy+
[url=http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/5-barna-update/196-evangelism-is-most-effective-among-kids]Evangelism Is Most Effective Among Kids[/url]
A Barna study that I saw a few years back which basically says that barring a jailhouse conversion, evangelizing adults is very difficult.
Ray Kroc and Walt Disney figured out half a century ago what mainline churches like this one have not. Kids bring their parents (and their parents bring the money), not the other way around. According to Fast Food Nation, there were 7200 McDonald’s with bright playgrounds in 2003. Coincidentally, that same year the ECUSA claimed 7200 churches. The numbers look different now of course, and in the mean time, while ECUSA has been closing churches, McD’s is building new playgrounds and rebuilding old ones. When a child goes in, he’s going to get a meal and a toy, and McD’s knows that all that investment in the children may well create a customer for life. When churches make that sort of effort with children, they make Christians for life and they kids bring the parents too.
For the record, my kids take me to soccer games and McDonald’s, and they are bugging me to go to a Baptist church that they’ve visited with their friends.
Luke 18:16