In Ohio the Last Episcopal church in one city is closing

Posted by Kendall Harmon

The only Episcopal church in Galion closed last month, after being a place of worship for more than 130 years.

During the past decade, the congregation at 130 W. Walnut St., stayed at less than 10, mostly seniors citizens. The handful of members asked the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio to allow the parish to close.

The Rev. Brad Purdom said an Episcopal church is created or closed by a vote at the annual convention. At this year's convention in Cleveland, the Diocese voted Saturday to allow Grace Episcopal to close.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Episcopal Church (TEC) • TEC Parishes

8 Comments
Posted November 20, 2009 at 4:24 pm [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. Br_er Rabbit wrote:

Galion, Ohio: Population 11,341; Episcopalian 0.1%.
Welcome to the future of The Episcopal Church.

November 20, 4:53 pm | [comment link]
2. Northwest Bob wrote:

Hmm!  300 million (population of the United States) times 0.1% is 300,000.  2.3 million minus 2 million is 300,000.  Br_er Rabbit may be on to something here.  :-(
NW Bob

November 20, 7:50 pm | [comment link]
3. Brien wrote:

There are about 100 Episcopalian congregations in northern Ohio. Purdom said churches in cities similar to Galion are going through a similar scenario.

Trinity Episcopal Church in Bryan, also with a small membership, closed last weekend and is up for sale.

Recently released membership statistics for 2008 show the median ASA for TEC is 69.  This means that of the slightly less than 7000 congregations reported (some of which are not even in the Episcopal Church anymore), around 3500 have attendance less than or equal to 69 persons.  This story is going to repeat more times than most bishops want to admit over the next years.

November 20, 8:49 pm | [comment link]
4. dwstroudmd wrote:

Galion, Ohio: Population 11,341

Population of GLBTQ? 2-3% at maximum would yield 226-339 potential attendees for the inclusive ECUSA/TEC.  What’s up with that flood of those folks into the parish/diocese/“church” promised after VGR?

Using Kinsey’s erroneous estimates it would be 1134 eligible.

Something’s amiss.

November 20, 11:50 pm | [comment link]
5. dwstroudmd wrote:

Ooops, forgot to include (Eleison!) the talking point others:
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_117096_ENG_HTM.htm

This enlarges the cachment substantially!  Something’s amiss.

November 20, 11:53 pm | [comment link]
6. Doug Martin wrote:

Thought you had to have a cathedral to be a “city”.  Just kidding.  Gorgeous old church and its a shame, but refering to Canon Harmon’s favorite data source the church has been at or below present attendance/membership since 1998.  Grew by maybe a family to 2003 and dropped by that in 2004.  The church in the equivalently small community of my childhood struggles similarly and exists only because of the grace and support of the Diocese of San Diego and the efforts of its succesive Bishops to deliver competent, enthusiastic (and Spanish speaking) ministry.

November 21, 8:29 am | [comment link]
7. The young fogey wrote:

The one in my Pennsylvania town, a century old like the town and practically in my back yard (I can see the tower from a window), just closed last month, part of a local trend over the past 10 years. The last two near here before this were postwar expansion parishes though. Beautiful English Gothic place, square tower, lych-gate and all. I wonder what will happen to it.

November 21, 10:39 am | [comment link]
8. TomRightmyer wrote:

Glad to read that the local historical society has bought the building, done some repair, and is making it available to the community.

November 21, 6:03 pm | [comment link]
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