The leaders of two congregations that once made up St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Oceanside said this week that their flocks are looking forward after the split, which saw a majority of parishioners leave the national Episcopal Church in 2006.
Deacon Bob Nelson, the clergy member in charge of the smaller congregation that today meets at the original West Street location, said he has seen membership grow from 18 in September to 50 people today.
A retired city manager, Nelson was appointed by the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego as a temporary administrator and spiritual leader until the church can hire its own priest —- something Nelson said he expects to happen late next year.
TEC Chart for St Anne still claimed ASA of 150 in 2009 with Plate & Pledge of ZERO. There is plenty of pew space for the ASA of 50 mentioned in this article as building seats 250. Statmann
“There is plenty of pew space for the ASA of 50 mentioned in this article as building seats 250.”
That easy enough to solve. Just remove enough pews so that the available seating will equal 63 seats which will work out to approximately 80% of the available seats being taken.
And then state that the new demographics for the parish define ‘achievable ASA’ for the parish as 55 persons which will give the parish a computed ASA of 90% of the achievable ASA.
ZERO plate pledge can be eliminated by declaring ‘free admission.’
And ZERO money available for sustaining the parish can be solved by selling the parish property, renting a school recreation room as a meeting site and then spending down the money from the sale of the parish property to pay the salary of the new, and possibly ‘new age’ revisionist parish clergy.
Okay, I note that the account of 50 ASA seems at variance with the giving.
But, if the episcopal congregation has in fact grown from 18 to 50 ASA, that would be a resounding success story by TEC standards. Credit where its due (if it is)!
I was not linking the ZERO Plate & Pledge with the current ASA of 50 as the ZERO was for 2009. Instead, I noted the ASA of 150 as an example of the annoying habit of the Dio of San Diego to continue to report ASA that no longer exists. Statmann