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Last Updated: Apr 12th, 2007 - 10:09:43 |
ROCHESTER — The worshippers at the Church of the Redeemer stood strong and stoic on Saturday in the face of closure.
The
more than 100 parishioners who gathered for the celebration were the
living, faithful embodiment that was central to Bishop V. Gene
Robinson’s mid-morning homily that stressed it’s more important to be
faithful than successful.
“What seemed so clear to me was that
even though there was a small number of people here, they had been just
utterly steadfast in their faithfulness,” Robinson said after the
celebration.
The mood inside the church, inevitably, was a
little solemn, but not totally. As people made their way to receive
Communion, and an acoustic guitar strummed softly to the sweet sounds
of “Amazing Grace,” there were more smiles than tears.
On this
day the parishioners were praying in their beloved church for the final
time. They did not appear to be bitter. Instead, some said they felt
empowered.
The church’s last service was on Easter, four months
after 24 parishioners voted to close their place of worship after more
than 100 years. Many said the closing was a long time coming.
The
falling out began in June, when a group of 36 parishioners refused to
be a part of the church because Robinson — who is openly gay and the
state’s Episcopal bishop — declined to give pastoral oversight to a
more conventional bishop.
He was elected the world’s first openly gay Episcopalian bishop in June 2003 and consecrated in November of that year.
Attendance
then suffered a precipitous drop, creating a financial and emotional
strain on the church. Member pledges weren’t sufficient to stay open,
and the Diocese of New Hampshire felt it was best to no longer invest
in the church.
But that’s not where the focus was on this day.
Robinson tried to keep people from thinking about their church’s
closure; he had them contemplate, instead, on their individual roles in
bringing the spirit of the Redeemer to other parishes across the state.
Heather
Hesse-Stromberg, 38, came to the parish last summer, when the split due
to Robinson began to intensify. She said the recent challenges
solidified her faith.
“I believe that by going out and going to
other churches we’re actually showing our faith more than if we had
stayed and tried to be a very small community,” Hesse-Stromberg said.
She doesn’t know where she will go to worship from here.
Ben
Lohnes, 43, of Milton, also said his faith is stronger now. “Even
though we will all go to different parishes, we have all come together
as a community and we have come together as Episcopalians,” he said.
Marie
Tarlton, 58, who has been a member of the church since 1966, had to
fight back tears in describing how she felt. She was married here and
her parents renewed their vows in the church. Her family was confirmed
in the church and each of her three godchildren were also confirmed and
baptized here. So it was a bittersweet day for Tarlton.
“We’ve gained faith, people have found faith,” she said.
Kevin
Gorham, a member of the church’s administrative team and parishioner
for 18 years, said once the decision was made to close the church it
made everything “peaceful and a comfortable place to be.”
“We
don’t have to fight this fight any longer,” he said. “What I’m hoping
is that we can all find another church that we can go to and not
volunteer for a little while ... go home without worrying about who’s
going to clean up, who’s going to lock that door, that sort of thing.”
A transition team has been named to determine what will happen with the church building.
Many
people expressed confidence that the Episcopal community will recreate
itself somewhere in the city. Before then, Robinson said, “people are
excited to be able to walk into a church and think about God and their
own spiritual journey rather than thinking about how are we going to
pay for the heat.”
© Copyright 2004-2006 by The Diocese of New Hampshire, The Episcopal Church
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