St. Mark’s Episcopal Church will shut its doors forever in May, bringing to a close a 180-year run of ministering in Warren.
Church officials got word from the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island about two weeks ago that poor finances were behind the diocese’s decision to shutter the church following final services on Sunday, May 2.
While not necessarily surprising, the news was sad, said the church’s pastor.
“We knew in the beginning of the year that we couldn’t pay our bills,” the Rev. James Verber said. “We’re small, we have a lot of retired people, and they don’t have the funds to pay the bills. The diocese made a financial decision.”
I suspect that Bishop Wolfe runs a taut ship which the USN taught us to say would be a happy ship. The diocese in 2008 had few small churches (16 of 55) and only two with Plate & Pledge less than that for St. Mark. So it may be difficult to claim that St. Mark was unfairly treated. Statmann
another domicile for a Muslim group?
I did a one-year internship at St. Mark’s as part of my discernment for ordination in the mid ’90s. Even then, one could see trends that would lead to this day. It was primarily a working class congregation, that seemed to be struggling to pick up the pieces after a lot of lay leadership left due to mill closings and changing circumstances. Their previous rector(or interim?) pretty much discouraged participation in the diocese (not so much for theological reasons, but more out clericalism) so the laity missed out on a lot of opportunities to be formed for leadership. That’s when I began to realize that as much as we talk about the ministry of the baptized, we actually have to form the baptized for ministry in order for it to happen.
There was also a spiritual malaise that a few struggled against, but seemed to describe the community as a whole. Friendliness was another issue. I’ll never forget that at one Vestry meeting, one vestry person was against a proposed stewardship campaign that included home visitations “because I don’t want you people in my house.” I’m not sure if that’s because of how she felt about her house, or the people, but it was a telling moment.
Another struggle for St Mark’s was that there were two large, energetic and growing Episcopal churches within a 10-15 minute drive. One more BCP/Society (St Michael’s, Bristol) one more BCP/slightly progressive (St John’s, Barrington). If you wanted more than just Sunday worship and weren’t part of the Warren community already, those were the churches to go to.
From the reported ASA, it looks like attendance is about 40% of what it was 15 years ago.
May God guide them to places they need to be in order to grow in Christ’s service.
My fellow priest in Rhode Island says, “The diocese made a financial decision.” It was a financial decision all right, but it was made by the parish. In 2008, the average pledge there was $688. The median household income for Warren in 2008 was $53,989. This means the members of St. Mark’s were giving 1.2% of their income, if they were a statistical sample of the town.
In Rhode Island, everyone loves to blame the diocese for their woes. Congregations need to accept responsibility for their own health. More important than that, even, we all need to accept our responsibility as disciples of Jesus Christ.
And [b]another[/b] TEC parish bites the dust.
Oh hey! I have an idea!! Why doesn’t the TEC use some of their legal fund to keep the lights on for a while?
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