[Magdalen] Some prayers requested...

[Marion Thompson]

In Ontario, this is a sad reality.  The Anglican Church is on the wane, 
we're all getting older and dying off and not being replaced.  The 
Church is simply not relevant in the lives of younger people today.  
When a church cannot pay a fulltime priest it's just a matter of time.  
Some may be able to merge in some way with other churches in the area, 
but that is by no means a certainty and no guarantee of success.  I 
think the reality is that people simply stop going anywhere when their 
own place closes.  Too old to start again and have to travel a greater 
distance to get there.  Just this morning I happened to visit a very 
elderly woman in a retirement home in Cobourg who had been a member of a 
now-closed Anglican church some distance east of there.  Rather than 
have to somehow get to another church in another town, in the end it had 
made sense for her to transfer to the local Presbyterian Church (another 
denomination in even more trouble in Canada) and her burial will be from 
there.

I have been close to such situations and I speak truth, exceptions 
notwithstanding.  I know of a place which, by and large, benefits from 
generous bequests, but wouldn't you know? all earmarked for church 
restoration and maintenance, while the operating budget is in 
substantial deficit.  Everyone wants their monument to be bricks and 
mortar with their name writ large on a plaque somewhere, while enabling 
the essential business of the church is not seen as an even better 
monument.

That won't fill you with hope, Sheila, and I hope the picture is 
brighter in your area.  Local circumstances do vary.

Marion, a pilgrim



On 8/29/2016 11:46 AM, sheila ketler via Magdalen wrote:
> Hello everyoneI think I have posted about this on a previous occasion but I am going to post about it again. I work in an Anglicanparish in Ontario - this diocese has decided that closures need to take place. Too many parishes not enoughparishioners or money. I worked for two other parishes that were slated for closure and quite honestly I had hopedto never go through this again after the second one... but here we are again. Now yesterday my boss the priestadvised that our money problems have not improved and we can't keep going on down this road so closureis most likely our only option. We did meet with two other parishes originally they had thought parishes wouldactually merge but I am not sure that is going to happen now... and so I will be out of work again for the third time.Every other time I have been able to find work again and I belong to the RCCO and I can always get placedon the sub list... not sure how much sub work there would be... I am going to contact a couple of them toput out feelers in this direction... but I am pretty sure by January I will be unemployed... We think thisChristmas will be our last parish Christmas... Anyone have any advice some thoughts?? I would appreciate it very much if some prayers would be offered...
> Feeling disappointed and dejected and quite honestly depressed... How many times do I have to go throughthis? I feel as if enough is enough already!!! I didn't want to give the church name...
> Sheila
> .
>