“It’s something that had to happen,” said senior warden Calvin Hefner. “The finances were a small portion of our problems. We simply were not able to move forward as a vestry.”
The Rev. Canon Michael Hunn, who represents Bishop Michael Curry and also is in charge of church transitions, says the diocese had worked with the congregation, including a series of meetings held over the last year.
“We were aware because of recent history that the finances were in dire shape,” Hunn said. However, he acknowledged problems within the church went further than the ledgers: “It’s been a struggling situation for some time.”
This is *rather odd*. According to an archived stats chart, in 2011, ASA at St. Andrews was around 105, actually *up* from an ASA of around 90 in 2010.
So, um . . . between 2011 and 2013, ASA plunged from 105 to “40 or 50”?
Ah — that’s kinda a radical decline there. I’m guessing that something or other happened to plunge the parish into that kind of disastrous disappearing of people!
The new rector, Leslie Burkhardt, was called in December of 2011.