Via TitusOneNine:
St. George's will dissolve, the latest in Episcopal exodus
By Electa Draper
The Denver Post
Posted: 08/28/2009 01:00:00 AM MDT
Updated: 08/28/2009 02:55:51 AM MDT
After a farewell service on Sunday, St. George's Episcopal Church will close its doors just short of its 100th anniversary — the latest parish to disintegrate in part because of the ordination of gay and lesbian priests.
The Episcopal Diocese of Colorado will officially deconsecrate the Englewood church, more recently called Holy Apostles, after its short-lived merger with another struggling congregation failed to save it.
"St. George's has been a church in turmoil for decades," said Rosamond Long, a 35-year member of the church. "We managed to get it back on its feet every time. This time, we're not going to be able to do it."
The remaining 30 or so congregants will scatter among other churches.
Even though these traditional, loyal and older Episcopalians did not object to the church's growing acceptance of openly gay clergy, they say, their former priest did.
The Rev. Roger Bower, who came to the church about two years ago along with members of the Church of the Holy Spirit, a startup congregation, left St. George's at the end of June.
By then, most of the new, younger congregants he had brought with him already had drifted away, family by family, alienated by a January announcement by Episcopal Bishop Robert O'Neill that the Colorado diocese would end its moratorium against ordaining partnered gay and lesbian persons.
The older and more staid St. George's members accepted O'Neill's pastoral innovations — but the younger Holy Spirit families, which had a very contemporary worship style, did not.
The shrinking parish could no longer afford a priest.
"We were a theologically conservative church," said Scott Field, who'd belonged to Holy Spirit before the merger. He later was elected senior warden of the combined church.
"Human sexuality is not the only issue of theological orthodoxy, but it seems to be the line in the sand many won't cross," Field said.
St. George's Episcopal Church will close its doors just short of its 100th anniversary — the latest parish to disintegrate in part because of the ordination of gay and lesbian priests. Do you support the ordination of gays and lesbians? Field and his wife, both cradle Episcopalians, are leaving the denomination.
"Change is with us," said St. George's parishioner Long. "I don't agree with everything the bishop says either, but community is more important. We are inclusive."
Left at the end of June with no rector, a combined membership of about 45 and inadequate financial resources, St. George's, which had fought dissolution time and time again, finally surrendered.
The vestry voted July 14 to pull the plug.
"The diocese won't help us," Long said. "They made it very clear."
The Colorado diocese, which had a membership of about 34,000 in 2000, had an estimated roll of just over 30,000 in 2007. In the same period, Sunday attendance fell from 15,000 to 12,000.
It isn't known how many of those losses can be attributed to doctrinal disputes. However, by the end of 2008, more than 25 Colorado parishes had affiliated with The Common Cause Partnership, a federation of conservative Anglicans. Of these parishes, 16 had either left the Episcopal Diocese or were formed outside its authority.
The most publicized and acrimonious church split in Colorado was the battle over Grace Church and St. Stephen's Parish in Colorado Springs, where the former pastor shifted allegiance to an Anglican province because, he said, he was angry over ordination of gays and lesbians and other deviations from orthodoxy.
The diocese countercharged that the Rev. Don Armstrong had stolen from the church. He is currently facing theft charges in El Paso County, and a court returned Grace Church properties to the diocese.
Diocese spokeswoman Beckett Stokes said no decision has been made about the St. George's property near East Hampden Avenue and South Clarkson Street — about 5 acres of church grounds.
"I know this is a loss for all of you personally," the bishop wrote to the parish July 31, "but I want you to know that the loss of your witness collectively as a community leaves a very real void for all of us in the diocese."
Wednesday was the last gathering of the women's sewing circle, which had been meeting in church since 1953.
"My son was married in this church. He's 62 now," said 87-year-old Marjorie Peterson, who came to America as a British war bride.
"It's devastating," said Anne Jansson. "We wanted to be buried in this church."
"Yes, Marjorie and I were looking forward to it," said 85-year-old Betty Jane "B.J." McClaflin, causing the ladies, gathered together to stitch small quilts for nursing homes, to erupt in laughter.
It didn't have to happen, said Tronette Hetts, founding member of the sewing circle.
It was a bad match — St. George's with the archconservative Bower and the other congregation, Long said, "but we were so anxious for it to work."
A few parishioners retrieved a large bas relief of St. George slaying the dragon from a back room — stored there when the church became Holy Apostles. The parishioners restored St. George to his place of honor in the church entryway.
It will be a brief stay.
"No one is ever going to know we were ever here," Jansson said.
No comments:
Post a Comment