[Magdalen] Crazy Sunday schedule

[Grace Cangialosi]

Yesterday I supplied over the mountain in two small churches whose rector left about three months ago. He was in seminary with me, and he had served those two churches for 24 years, though he had been looking to leave for several years.
The churches were two of the thirty missions established here in the Blue Ridge by Archdeacon Neve at the beginning of the 20th century. I served two of them from 1991-2000. There are only about six still open, and the two where I was yesterday are the only ones with parish status.

I supplied early last summer for a combined service there, but I'd never done the whole Sunday schedule until yesterday. I cannot imagine putting up with it for 24 years!  The two churches are about five miles apart, and there are three services. The 8:00 service is at Grace; there's no music, because they don't have an organist. It's their main service, and twice a month they have breakfast afterwards.
The 9:30 service is up the road at St. Stephen and the Good Shepherd. They do have an organist, so there's music. Nothing after the service, and anyway, I had to leave right after the service to go back to Grace for the 11:00 service. There's no opportunity for fellowship with the 9:30 congregation because of the tight schedule. Still no music at 11, though they did ask if we could sing one of the hymns listed in the bulletin for 9:30. So we did two a cappella. There was one little boy who came with his grandparents; he was the only child I saw all morning. There was nothing after that service, either. Each church has its own budget and vestry, and they barely speak to one another. One church did its best to make the former rector's life miserable. He was never paid diocesan  scale.

Obviously he didn't do anything to change all that, and they basically called the shots for his entire tenure.  All three services were Rite II, but I was astonished to learn that they've never had Lay Eucharistic Ministers in the service. In fact, they looked at me as if I had two heads when I asked about it! At one service a retired priest asked if I'd like him to help administer the chalice, and I was glad to take him up on it.  They had also never had a lay person do the Prayers of the People! A woman came to me before the last service and asked if she could read aloud the names from the prayer list, since they hadn't done that in a long time.

The total attendance for the three services was about 43. They've been told they will need to have an interim, and they can't start the search process for awhile, because there will need to be some changes. I just can't imagine someone wanting to go there under the present circumstances. There is a lovely rectory across from Grace Church, but there's no garage, so it's always obvious whether the rector is at home or away.

Folks were very nice to me and said they hoped I'd come back, but I'm not sure about that. They've apparently bein given the
 name of a possible interim, but I think she lives a couple of hours away. It's a little over an hour for me, but I know the road over the mountain like the back of my hand. Having three services in and of itself isn't too bad--lots of bigger churches do that. It's the running back and forth that's exhausting. They did give me the option--said they leave the choice of having the third service up to the supply priest. If s/he doesn't want to do the third service, it's just cancelled. The senior warden said they usually only have 8-10 people at that service. There were 12 yesterday.

I know there are lots of little churches like this, including the two I served before, which are struggling with mostly lay leadership and  monthly visits from  a priest, but I don't see much future for them unless there is a totally new model. Working ecumenically with other churches in the area would be a possibility, but for many folks that's almost unthinkable.

I guess the question is whether they should be closed or continue to limp along until folks die off. There is no growth potential in that rural area.