St. Mark’s, a historically black church within the Episcopal Diocese of South Carolina, has reached the end of a 146-year first phase that began Easter Sunday in 1865, the year the Civil War ended and black churchgoers chose — and sometimes were forced — to strike out on their own.
At the cusp of its uncertain next phase, parish leaders said they are confronting a convergence of challenges and tensions that at once hold promise for a vital future and threaten to tear the congregation asunder.
Its survival, they said, depends on a careful strategy that balances respect for its heritage, pride in its racially integrated character and an acknowledgement of contemporary reality.
This parish is almost certainly doomed. They can deal with issues of race, age, politics, etc as much as they like. But it is where they stand on God’s truth that will make the difference.
[blockquote] “The parish already has seen some changes that challenge old perceptions and new expectations, and its members, who number about 80 and whose average age hovers in the 60s, are working to reconcile several opposing forces in order define a new identity and reach a new day with sunny skies, according to its rector, the Rev. Dan Messier, and other officials.
The tug-of-war — between whites and blacks (and among blacks), the young and elderly, the past and future, the parish and the diocese, the political and theological, urban and suburban sensibilities — is not necessarily unique to St. Mark’s. Many downtown churches face some or all of these tensions to a degree.” [/blockquote]
If this parish continues to embrace the doctrine taught by John Spong, Frank Griswold or Katherine Schori, then its going to go down. Sooner or later this lesson will be learned by modern churches – they can learn it after they have closed 50 churches or after they have closed 500, the choice is up to them.