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Between July and November five congregations in the Diocese of Colorado will close for varied reasons. The closures are part of a 20-year period of decline that the leadership is attempting to reverse through redevelopment, according to the Rev. Canon Lou Blanchard, canon missioner, who provided details on four of the closings in an Aug. 19 letter to the clergy. “[These congregations] have recognized on their own that they no longer have the energy or the resources to continue,” Canon Blanchard told The Living Church. “It takes a tremendous amount of courage to face up to reality. They had the...

The canon Missioner for the Diocese of Colorado who is in charge of congregational development for the diocese, says that as many as 12 parishes will close with three already having made the decision to shut down. He calls it "holy dying." He also blames it on "National Church issues". Lou Blanchard, known unaffectionately as the "Grim Reaper of Church Growth" by an orthodox priest in the diocese, announced this week that St. Francis, Colorado Springs has made the decision to close after declining over several years for many reasons including National Church Issues. Their final service will be on...

In 1996, when the Rev. William Scafidi moved to Newburgh, he might as well have landed on another planet. The priest had been transplanted from his work in the seat of Catholic power in the United States, the elegant and soaring St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, to the Church of St. Mary in Newburgh, a ragged, red-brick building that, at the time, drew only about 80 parishioners per Sunday. St. Mary sat humbly on South Street, a predominantly black neighborhood ranked for years as one of New York's poorest and most violent pockets. Days before his transfer, Scafidi had rubbed...

Even with its parapets and stained glass, the Golden Gate Lutheran Church on the corner of 19th Street and Dolores in the Mission isn't the prettiest building around. Truth be told, the red-brick edifice built in 1912 has a bit of the humble workhorse about it. Nor does it attract the most worshippers. According to Pastor Ed Miller, the congregation of active members amounts to only about 35 or 40 people. But like so many inner-city churches, it made itself relevant -- and for some people indispensable -- by filling gaps in our yawning social safety net. Until recently, it...

Members of St. Nicholas' Episcopal Church and supporters from churches around the city, state and nation began to fill the pews nearly an hour before Sunday's service. By 7 p.m., chairs spilled out into the sanctuary's foyer until there was standing room only. It was the final Sunday many of St. Nicholas' parishioners would gather together in the building they built only four years ago. Nearly 90 percent of the congregation is leaving St. Nicholas' to begin Christ Church Midland (Anglican Communion) after Bishop Wallis Ohl of the Episcopal Diocese of Northwest Texas told those who were dissatisfied with the...

End Nears for Latin Mass at Boston Church By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN The Associated Press Monday, May 30, 2005; 5:00 AM BOSTON -- Dan Linnell drives from his home on Cape Cod to Boston's South End most Sundays so he can worship at Holy Trinity Church, the only Roman Catholic congregation in the area that celebrates Mass in Latin.Linnell's wife introduced him to Holy Trinity in 1996, when they started dating, and he immediately "fell in love" with the Latin Mass, which features Roman Catholic rituals, including Gregorian chants, that date back more than 1,500 years. Monsignor Peter V. Conley gives...