Although its doors are still open, Christ Church in Canaan may be in the final months of its existence. The venerable Episcopal church has served the community since 1844 but its congregation has dwindled and it with it, its resources.
If, indeed, the church closes, the effect will ripple through the community. Its faithful congregants will be most directly affected, deprived of the spiritual comfort of a beautiful sanctuary where some of them were baptized and married. A classic stone church, based on the design of Richard Upjohn, the American architect who pioneered the restoration of Gothic architecture for American churches, its construction materials were dug out of Canaan’s rocky hills and it has been a defining presence in the center of Canaan for 168 years….
Sad news for our family. This is the church where my children were baptized and the church that sponsored me as a postulant for Holy Orders.
Chuck Bradshaw+
Hulls Cove, Maine
I interviewed there in the late 1970’s after the long term rector died. The church property needed some maintenance and the vestry were all in their 70’s. The town is in the northwest corner of the state. Attendance dropped in 2007 from 45 to 30 and income accordingly. Yoked with adjacent parish, single woman rector with Ph.D. in Public Health. I commend her efforts.
Unfortunately, if “a bunch of angels” appeared, they would be turned away for not believing the TEC theology.
Its just the same story that is heard from one corner of TEC or another every week. It is the inevitable wages of liberal teaching, or rather, of *tolerance* of liberal teaching. The antics of Katherine Schori et. al. may drive people away, but the fault lies with the legion of ‘fence-sitters’ in TEC who tacitly support them.
Continue down this road and there will be plenty more churches like Christ Church Canaan.
I should add, that I am aware that there are many in TEC who do not accept liberal teaching and in their quiet way work to oppose it, whether by quiet witness, withholding funds, or other means. My comment was not directed at them.
thank you, Michael.