From RNS-St. Stephen’s, an Episcopal church in Center City Philadelphia, isn’t open on Easter. There are no sermons on Sundays. It doesn’t have any members. And yet this castlelike Gothic Revival building on 10th Street is still a functioning, active church — just not in the ways you might expect.
Rather than opening on Sundays, the church operates on a four-day schedule, with midday services Monday through Thursday. And rather than focusing on growing the congregation, St. Stephen’s is fully invested in being present for the community, practicing a true open-door policy that makes it a place of support for anyone in need.
The church — an architectural landmark designed by William Strickland in 1823 — has long flourished in the active downtown neighborhood near Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. But the church hit a slump in the 1980s — not long after the Rev. Alfred W. Price, a particularly charismatic pastor, ended his nearly 30-year career in the pulpit. By 2016, fewer than a dozen worshippers might be found in the pews on a Sunday morning, and the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania made the difficult decision to shutter St Stephen’s.
More here-
https://religionnews.com/2019/06/20/philadelphia-episcopalians-explore-what-happens-when-church-is-separated-from-sunday/?fbclid=IwAR1N7RS6Ne5cHihLCwf7eDXY-IVPxRExfrzDLa0NjXMVFAGHkRgKrMW1vvo
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