Eileen MacKenzie busily polished brass and silver "to make it sparkle a bit" at St. Augustine’s Anglican Church on Saturday.

It helped her and several other congregation members keep their minds off the fact that the church will close its doors today after more than 50 years due to dwindling attendance.

"It probably won’t hit us, the real sadness, until tomorrow when we’re going up to communion for the last time," said Ms. MacKenzie, who has attended the church since it was built in this Pictou County town in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Anglicans have been worshipping in Trenton since at least the turn of the century at various locations. The existing building’s cornerstone was dedicated in 1949.

Ms. MacKenzie can remember a time when many of the pews were filled each Sunday, compared with an average of 15 who have attended weekly services in recent years.

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Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • - Anglican: Latest News • Anglican Provinces • Anglican Church of Canada

1. samh wrote: “But church just isn’t something that gets people up on Sunday morning anymore,” she said. “There are just too many other things.” If this was the biggest problem facing the church (and I know nothing about the parish, so I am going to take them at face value) then the church must remove that particular barrier!  Going into the world, making disciples, preaching the good news… it doesn’t mean “open your doors Sunday morning at 8 am and 10 am and hope people show up, and if they do, invite them to a newcomer’s class, and get ‘em to teach sunday school”  A church who simply keeps doing what it’s always done because it’s always been done that way and refuses to speak The Good News to the people around it in a meaningful way and to minister (meaning to serve) to those around it is doomed to die. May 27, 6:48 am | [comment link]

2. Tom Roberts wrote: WRT the Canadian Anglican situation, ““It’s not like we have no other place to go,” Ms. MacKenzie said.” just about says it all. May 27, 7:39 am | [comment link]

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