A Different Kind of Church Wedding
Two Episcopal Parishes Consider Merging to Keep the Faith Economically

By Greg Gaudio
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 30, 2009

At St. James Episcopal Church in Bowie, children are free to roam during services, and they often amble up to the altar and hold the priest's hand.

At St. George's Episcopal, three miles down Lanham Severn Road in Glenn Dale, the congregation is an eclectic, quirky collective of straight and gay men and women of various races.

Neither Episcopal parish in northern Prince George's County wants to sacrifice the factors that make it special. But against the backdrop of the recession, which has tightened parishioners' pockets and diminished the value of the church's national endowments, banding together has emerged as the only viable option for the survival of St. James, the smaller of the two churches with just 38 parishioners.

When that became clear to the Rev. Anne-Marie Jeffery, St. James's rector (the Episcopal equivalent of a pastor), she reached out to St. George's. Since April, the two parishes have been exploring a merger by having integrated services mostly at St. George's, which is more modern and has a following of about 70.

If the churches merge, St. James could be closed and sold. It's still too early to say what will happen, said Jeffery and the Rev. Connie Reinhardt, the rector at St. George's. They said they expect to make a decision this fall.

"The way I would like to see things play out is we stay faithful to what God is calling us to do, what the Holy Spirit is calling us to do, and be willing to do the hard work," Reinhardt said. "Then the best decision will become clear. And however it goes, we'll know we did the right thing."

For now, the priests said, they are focused on helping their parishioners learn all they can from each other and adjust to the changes that might be ahead.

On Sunday, the congregants from both parishes gathered at St. James. As strings and flutes played the recessional hymn, 20-month-old Mary Lawley wobbled from her parents' pew. In her bumblebee-yellow summer dress, with milk bottle in hand, she joined the handful of children singing around the altar. As the procession prepared to depart, Jeffery scooped up the child and bobbed her up and down all the way to the back.

Mary's parents, Katy and Ernie Lawley of Bowie, said they decided to join St. James about a year ago in part because children are allowed to participate so freely. Katy Lawley, 37, said it is one of the church's defining characteristics, which she hopes won't fall by the wayside in a merger with St. George's, where children's participation is more traditional.

At first, St. George's parishioners didn't know what to make of the wandering children.

"This is crazy," said Rich Koster, 48, of Laurel in recalling what he and others at St. George's first thought. "Then you realize, no it's not. . . . It's actually a wonderful part of the celebration."

Although both parishes consider themselves progressive, some at St. James had to get used to worshiping alongside the gay couples at St. George's.

"People who don't know a lot about gay and lesbian couples have learned how they are in the church and in the community," Koster said. "And what they've learned is they're just couples. They're in love, and that's a great thing."

Episcopal Church officials voted this month at their triennial national convention in Anaheim, Calif., to allow the ordination of gay bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions, two hot-button issues that have alienated some conservative Episcopalians. The decisions have not been an issue in the merger between St. George's and St. James, said Reinhardt, the St. George's rector, who is a lesbian.

The focus has been more on the everyday issues, such as who greets, who coordinates the choir and who brings the flowers each week, both priests said.

"This merger exploration is hard work," Jeffery said. "I think there are many gifts within it, but boy, is it hard work."

She said she has not been able to talk to her parishioners as much as usual, but she spends a lot of time thinking about them: "What goes through my head is who's anxious, who's angry, what needs to be negotiated today, and is this the right thing?"

But, as Jeffery sees it, there weren't many alternatives.

When she came to St. James in 2007 to take over as rector, she found the congregation "broken" and "exhausted," and she inherited a dire financial situation.

Around 1999, the Episcopal Diocese of Washington put pressure on smaller churches to try to expand, Jeffery said. St. James had a sizable nest egg but quickly spent it to bring in a rector and implement programs that failed to attract new parishioners.

In 2002, the diocese built Sunday school classrooms and office space adjacent to the church, and utility bills and maintenance costs added to the burden. Five years later, the elimination of a popular 11:15 a.m. service caused one-third of the congregation to leave, reducing donations.

The recession proved to be the final straw. It didn't cause remaining churchgoers to give less, but it decimated the value of Episcopal endowments invested in the stock market, which meant less money for all of the churches, Jeffery said.

In June 2008, it became apparent that money would run out in six months unless something was done. A consultant offered three options: Downsize, grow or merge.

Downsizing would have cut Jeffery's hours to less than part time, leaving her unable to adequately serve her parish, she said. Growing to a critical mass of 75 people would have taken five to six years at a cost of $50,000 per year, by the consultant's estimates. Although most in the parish wanted to try to grow, merging seemed the most plausible way to survive, Jeffery said.

In September, Jeffery asked Reinhardt whether she and the St. George's congregation would consider combining, and the two assembled a merger exploration team and began laying the groundwork for the trial period.

Still, some at St. James hold out hope for a miracle that will allow them to stay in their church. Fannie Basin, 89, has been attending St. James her whole life. After the service Sunday, she marched to the front and peeled back the cloth covering the wooden altar.

"Mr. Albert Smith made this from a chestnut tree that grew on Bowie soil," she said. "He seasoned it out and made this altar. He made it in memory of three children who died as infants."

She then told a story about a woman who melted her silverware to make the church's chalice and ciborium, the covered cup that holds the Eucharist wafers.

"It's things like this, why I hate to leave," she said. "I have no quarrel with St. George's."