Members of a local congregation are finding themselves without a church.
Saint Andrews Episcopal Church in east Charlotte shut its doors this week, catching many people by surprise.
“It’s terribly disappointing, terribly disappointing,” said Tom Brice, a church member.
Tom Brice says he’s shocked and hurt over the news that St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church is shutting down.
Four years ago, I took a driving tour vacation which took me past several small TEC churches in NC. I had already left, but following those “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You” signs was a hard habit to break. Many of them would have been hard pressed to muster 100 worshipers on Christmas Eve, and it was sad to realize how many of these would be lost due to the current Unpleasantness. This is not the first, and there will be many more. Please pray for the parishioners, especially those who are elderly and have lost the only church home they have had in recent memory.
[blockquote]when the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina called a meeting at the church Wednesday night, members were excited. Then came the bombshell.
“Then when they said ‘no, we’re shutting it down’, it just took us very much by surprise,” said Brice.
Church members say they were told the church had fallen behind on payments to the Diocese[/blockquote]
Has the Episcopal Church just become an extortion racket?
Where’s Waldo?
Bishop Michael Curry is the bishop for that diocese, the Diocese of North Carolina.
They reported in 2011 140K income, 165 members, ASA 90. The church is at 3601 Central Avenue – north of Independence Blvd. When I was last there some years ago it was in a changing neighborhood, but there must be a story behind this. Another new model new congregation – the Beloved Disciple was quickly closed a few years ago.
It would seem looking at their chart-
http://pr.dfms.org/study/exports/4169-1049_20130601_07024413.pdf
that something must have happened over the last 2 years that had a big negative impact. But strikes me as unusual for a congregation to go directly from parish status to “closed” without being in mission status for a while (the usual step when a parish gets behind in their payments to the diocese).
It “had no choice but to let its pastor go” and there is no more detail about that. Also, under Bishop Curry, any parish or mission hoping to be undisturbed must keep current on its diocesan assessment. Perhaps there are a few somethings we’re not hearing in this report.
If every Episcopal church with fewer than 90 ASA and less than $140K in pledge and plate were to be closed, that would really clear the decks…I agree with ##4 and 6…there has to be more to this story. The demographics alone don’t seem to support the decision to close the church.