Members of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church recently received a letter from their priest, the Rev. Robin Smith, confirming that one of the community’s first churches will close following services on Christmas Eve.
The church was established in 1833, with a cornerstone laid in 1832, by the Rev. William Narcissus Lyster, an Irishman who had emigrated to America, who is said to have named the Irish Hills because they reminded him of his homeland. lyster was invited to the settlement by Musgrove Evans, J.W. Brown, and George Spofford and founded the first Episcopal Church west of the Alleghenies. The church will close its doors after marking just over 177 years in the Tecumseh community.
This is indeed sad. The parish has had a history of evangelical ministry. Northern Virginia CANA rector the Rev Robin Adams pastored here in the 1980s through mid 1990s.
The death of a church often raises the question: why this one? Of the 86 churches in the Diocese of Michigan in 2009, there were 25 which had a smaller ASA than St. Peter. And it would be difficult to blame the town as Tecunseh was one of the best 100 small cities in the USA as selected by CCNMoney.com. Tecumseh is also the origin of the Dynamic Kernels Project. Statmann
As I said, they had been an evangelical parish so perhaps:
1. There was an exodus as a result of the recent actions of TEC
2. The decision to hire a female rector
[i] Comment deleted. Commenter banned. [/i]
This is one of three parishes closing in the Diocese of Michigan after Christmas. The other two are St. Andrew’s in Clawson and St. Andrew’s in Jackson.
Rogue Saint…really? very sad ad hominem attack.