[Magdalen] Crazy Sunday schedule

[Charles Wohlers]

Reminds me of the situation in Brandon, VT, where my wife Lee was interim 
for ~2 years. It was a better situation than you describe, however, and may 
show you a direction to go in.

There are also two churches, also about 5 miles apart. One is a largish 
standard stone gothic building located in downtown Brandon (pop. ~4500); the 
other is a very cute carpenter gothic wooden church in "suburban" Forest 
Dale - a much smaller community. Forest Dale originally existed thanks to 
iron mining & smelting and the church was built by the owner for his workers 
(a common arrangement, as you probably know). The parishes both date from 
the 1830's or 1840's or so, and have always had a common rector. When Lee 
arrived (2006), they still had separate vestries but had long since 
worshipped together, alternating between the two buildings. Her predecessor, 
BTW, also had a long tenure - 20 years. While Lee was there the parishes 
finally merged officially, and now the worship schedule is Forest Dale in 
the winter, Brandon in the summer. (The Forest Dale church is smaller and so 
cheaper to heat). There has long been talk of closing one of the buildings, 
but - which one? One is centrally located but expensive to maintain, while 
the other is out-of-the-way but cheaper to maintain.

So - combining the two parishes with services alternating between them is 
one possibility, but, as you know, is easy in theory but can be very 
difficult to accomplish. My personal experience tells me that any desire to 
merge needs to originate with the parishes, and not with the Diocese.

Lee was also interim at two parishes in Fall River, with a schedule similar 
to what you describe (but only two services, not three). And these were only 
a mile or so apart, in a city. The parish with the early service always felt 
a bit cheated, as the priest had to run off to the other service. They also 
had a common priest for some years. They eventually merged and sold one of 
the buildings.

Just my experience -

Chad Wohlers
East Bridgewater, MA USA
chadwohl at satucket.com


-----Original Message----- 
From: Grace Cangialosi
Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2015 12:51 AM
To: Magdalen
Subject: [Magdalen] Crazy Sunday schedule

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.