For Christ Church in Hudson, the split came from within. Half the congregation left in 2003 after an openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, was ordained in New Hampshire. They set up a new church across town, Holy Trinity Anglican.
At the same time, entire congregations of the Church of the Holy Spirit in Akron and St. Luke’s in Fairlawn left the Diocese of Ohio. The pastor of St. Luke’s, Mike Kraynak says Robinson’s ordination was one of several concerns.
“One thing I believe is really tragic is the gay community gets blamed sometimes because it makes headlines — that this separation is about homosexuality. Our decision to leave the Episcopal Church was really a result of several decades of drifting apart of theological understandings, such as the divinity of Christ, or the nature of salvation”¦”
Dio of Ohio finally stopped reporting Plate & Pledge for Holy Spirit in Akron, St Luke in Freelawn, Transfiguration in Cleveland, St Barnabas in Bay Village, and St Anne in Madison in 2009. Yet, the Dio persists in reporting Members and ASA for them. If corrected, this would result in a loss of about 1,000 ASA. For 2009, this correction would result in about an 11 percent decline in ASA which would put its ASA loss for 2002 through 2009 at about 35 percent. Adding to this very bad stat are the 55 percent decline in Infant Baptisms and the 50 percent decline in Marriages, resulting in just 114 Marraiges in 2009 for all 94 churches in the Dio. It would be reasonable to conclude that by now (2011) there is not even one Marraige per church. Statmann
Then it looks like the TEC presence in this corner of Ohio has just vanished away, replaced by several medium to large sized ACNA or independent Anglican churches – is that a fair summary?
The dio of Ohio has 94 churches which should maintain a viable presence. For the near term it looks fairly well off with only 44 percent of its churches with ASA of 66 or less and 30 of its churches with Plate & Pledge of $150K or more in 2009. But the longer term looks bleak in regard to ASA, Money, Infant Baptisms and Marriages. Statmann