How diversity saved a historic church in West Philly

From Philadelphia-

Philadelphia’s neighborhoods are studded with hundreds of historic churches. But as attendance steadily declines, many of these religious buildings have fallen into disrepair. Some have been forced to become something else entirely, like loft-style apartments.

A Pew Charitable Trust study released in October found that of the city’s 839 historic churches – defined as those constructed before 1965 – about 83 percent were still being used for religious purposes. 10 percent have been repurposed into other uses and five percent are vacant.

From 2011 to 2015, 23 were demolished.

The loss of historic churches is a trend that continues, as Bella Vista’s Christian Street Baptist Church is now targeted for demolition, even after the building was thought to have been spared the wrecking ball by the Historical Commission.

In West Philadelphia, the Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church at 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue, faced a similar fate. The building had fallen into disrepair, but instead of allowing the demolition of the church, the neighborhood saved the space by embracing the diversity of the surrounding community.

More here-

http://planphilly.com/articles/2017/12/08/how-diversity-saved-a-historic-church-in-west-philly

HOTEL EMPLOYEE TURNS TRASH INTO CHARITY WITH FURNITURE DONATIONS

From Philadelphia-

When the Wyndham Hotel in Mt. Laurel was replacing some furniture recently, the plan was to rent dumpsters and cart it all away.

But Sales and Marketing Director Vicky McCristal had an idea. Instead of spending $3000 renting trash bins, why not donate these sleeper couches and chairs to charity?

"Not only are they nice for sitting on and large enough for four people, but they serve as beds," said McCristal. "And we know people in Camden that don't have beds."

With permission from the Wyndham's owners, McCristal has been scouting out shelters, senior facilities and churches in the Camden area.

Almost 50 pieces have been donated so far, driven in a truck by Vicky's husband Kyle.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church on Market Street in Camden accepted a room full of chairs, and couches and are now trying to match them with new owners.

More here-

http://6abc.com/news/hotel-employee-turns-trash-into-charity-with-furniture-donations-/1228416/

Troubled Philadelphia Catholic diocese welcomes Pope Francis' late-September visit

From Pittsburgh-

The pipe organ thundered during Sunday morning Masses as worshipers gathered inside the grand Basilica Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul in central Philadelphia.

Outside in the hot August sun, artists and others were busily preparing an eyeful for Pope Francis’ visit here in late September.

Their project: building a makeshift grotto and displaying tens of thousands of strips of cloth in which individual visitors have written their prayers, many in English or Spanish, asking for the welfare of their families, friends, immigrants, the homeless and the hungry.

“Hopefully this will give voice to those who otherwise may not have a voice,” said Meg Saligman, the local artist coordinating the project, who said some 30,000 prayers have been contributed.

More here-

http://www.post-gazette.com/news/2015/09/13/Troubled-Philadelphia-Catholic-diocese-welcomes-Pope-Francis-late-September-visit/stories/201509130098

50 Ministers Bless Gay Marriage Of Bill Gatewood And Rick Taylor, Showing Solidarity With Rev. Frank Schaefer

From Philadelphia-

Bill Gatewood and Rick Taylor only needed one minister to marry them at their longtime place of worship, Arch Street United Methodist Church.

Instead, they got fifty.

Risking the loss of their credentials, the ministers came to show their support of same-sex marriage, an issue currently being hotly debated in the Methodist Church, as well as to show solidarity with an embattled colleague who has been personally affected. Rev. Frank Schaefer of Lebanon, PA, will stand trial on Nov. 18 in front of the church because he officiated his son's same-sex wedding, which is currently against church law.

More here-

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/12/50-ministers-gay-marriage_n_4260490.html?ir=Religion

Deal ends fight to keep 2 W. Phila. buildings, funds cathedral

From Philadelphia-

In a deal that could have wide ramifications for Philadelphia, the Preservation Alliance has dropped its legal opposition to demolishing two landmarked church buildings in West Philadelphia after the property's developer agreed to create a fund to preserve the main church, the Episcopal Cathedral.

The proposed demolition of the two brownstones to make way for a 25-story apartment tower provoked an outcry among preservationists because the properties were listed on both the city and national historic registers. Citing the public interest, however, the Historical Commission revoked the landmark status in June, spurring the alliance's appeal.

The settlement, announced Wednesday, allows the Radnor Property Group to proceed immediately with construction of the tower at 38th and Chestnut Streets. The 280-unit project will replace the rectory and parish house as well as a small apartment building.
More here-

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20130314_Changing_Skyline__Deal_ends_fight_to_keep_2_W__Phila__buildings__funds_cathedral.html

Episcopal priest helps nab suspected copper thieves in Haddonfield

From Philadelphia / New Jersey -

Thanks to a sharp-eyed Episcopal priest, Haddonfield police have arrested and charged a pair of suspected copper thieves.
"Don't mess with a priest," the Rev. Patrick Close of Grace Church on Kings Highway posted on his Facebook page Tuesday.

Close saw two young men the previous day in an area of the church grounds not open to the public and went out to question them, he reported.

They departed, but when he left that night, Close noticed the rectory's copper downspouts were gone.

He filed a police report, including a detailed description of the men, on Tuesday morning, and, by afternoon, officers returned to report they had made the arrests.

"Wow! Almost as fast as NCIS!" Close wrote.

Police Lt. Ed Wiley said borough detectives traced the men to Camden and one admitted the theft.

Anthony Marchione Jr., 34, who is homeless, and Patrick Duross-Malloy, 27, of Blackwood, were charged with theft and criminal mischief, Wiley said.

Marchione was jailed in Camden County with bail set at $1,000 bail. Duross-Malloy was turned over to Gloucester County for outstanding warrants there.

More here-

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/20121011_Episcopal_priest_helps_nab_suspected_copper_thieves_in_Haddonfield.html

Happy ending for 1923 pipe organ from G’town church

From Philadelphia-

The journey that began in sadness five years ago for the 1923 E.M. Skinner Opus 407 pipe organ came to a happy conclusion Sunday, Sept. 9. The exquisite gem of an instrument that started its life of service to the faithful at the now-shuttered St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Germantown was officially given a second life of making music for the parishioners of Old St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Society Hill with a service of blessing and dedication.

The solo organ recital was performed by Andrew Senn. The Curtis Institute of Music alumnus previously was organist and music director of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Germantown; he now occupies the same position at the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. Senn opened the program with his own transcription of Rossini’s Overture to his opera, “The Turk in Italy.” J.S. Bach’s “Prelude & Fugue in E-flat major” followed. Senn then played the Folk Tune and Andante Tranquilo movements from Percy Whitlock’s “Five Short Pieces,” Franck’s “Choral No. 1 in E major” and closed with Vierne’s “Les Cloches de Hinckley.”

Pipe organs are always designed to fit into a specific space and to support a specific liturgy. In the case of Skinner’s Opus 407, the architectural setting was in the Victorian Gothic Revival of the second half of the 19th century; the liturgical practice was the “low church,” Protestant-leaning worship style of many if not most Episcopal congregations at the time in the U.S. Although Old St. Joseph’s Church is the oldest parish in Philadelphia, its current church is the third structure built on the site. Styled in the Greek Revival fashion of the early 19th century, it was consecrated in 1837. Gothic Revival churches tend toward both visual and acoustical darkness whereas Greek Revival churches tend to be bright and open in look and sound.

More here-

http://chestnuthilllocal.com/blog/2012/09/12/happy-ending-1923-pipe-organ-gtown-church/

Renegade Episcopal rector to be ordained Roman Catholic church

From Philadelphia-

The Rev. David Ousley was baptized a Methodist in 1951, was ordained a priest of the Episcopal Church in 1979, and left it in 1999 for the Anglican Church in America.

And on Saturday, this 61-year-old married father of three will make one more ecclesiastical leap: he will be ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in a 11 a.m. Mass at Holy Cross Church in Mount Airy.

He is "swimming the Tiber," as Anglicans call conversion to Catholicism — a reference to the river that runs through Rome — but the white-bearded Ousley will not emerge from his swim on some strange and foreign shore.

Even after he becomes a Catholic priest, he can continue to wear his Anglican collar, lead his flock at Vesper services, warble old hymns like "A Mighty Fortress," and read some of the prayers found in the lectionary that the Church of England has been using since King Henry VIII broke with Rome in the 16th century .

After decades of petitioning and negotiating by conservative Anglicans and Episcopalians, Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 approved a constitution, called Anglicanorum Coetibus, establishing the equivalent of national dioceses for disaffected Anglicans such as Ousley. These ordinariates, as they are called, allow laity and clergy from the Anglican tradition to join the Roman Catholic Church while retaining much of their liturgies, calendar, and traditions — including married priests.
More here-

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/religion/20120616_Renegade_Episcopal_rector_to_be_ordained_Roman_Catholic_church.html

Pa. church seeks demolition of historic buildings

From Philadelphia-

A historic Philadelphia church wants permission to knock down its rectory and parish house to keep up with maintenance of the cathedral.

The Episcopal Cathedral of Philadelphia wants permission to demolish the two other historic buildings and put in a mixed-use 25-story building so it can finance repairs of the church.

All three buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places. Church officials want to demolish the two brownstone townhouses and erect a building with apartment, office and retail space that they say will also help expand its ministry.

The Philadelphia Inquirer (http://bit.ly/NIj2DT ) reports the city's historical commission deadlocked on the plan during a vote last month and will reconsider it Friday.

The church was built in 1855.

http://www.wtrf.com/story/18714752/pa-church-seeks-demolition-of-historic-buildings

Burlington City fire trucks receive St. Florian blessing

From Philadelphia-


It wasn’t flames that drew the city’s fire and emergency vehicles to St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on Sunday afternoon.

The fleet that lined Broad Street was being blessed, for the first time, in honor of St. Florian, the patron saint of firefighters. The Feast of St. Florian is celebrated during the first week of May.

Firefighters and emergency responders and their families looked on from the sidewalk as the Rev. J. Connor Haynes read a prayer and sprinkled holy water on each of the vehicles, which represented the Mitchell, Neptune and Niagara stations, and the Endeavor Emergency Squad.

The blessing followed an evening service, known as an evensong, that included a firefighter’s prayer, choir music and moment of silence dedicated to men and women killed while serving the community.
“When we bless equipment, we’re giving thanks to God that we have it, we’re asking for his blessing of the equipment itself, and we’re asking for his blessing for the people who use the equipment. This is a way of our congregation participating in the life of the community,” Haynes, the church’s rector, said after the blessing.

More here-

http://www.phillyburbs.com/my_town/burlington/burlington-city-fire-trucks-receive-st-florian-blessing/article_460d5f35-c807-546d-8747-f7f91cc656a7.html

Cardinal Anthony Bevilaqua Died Tuesday Night

From Philadelphia-

The AP is reporting that Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua died in his sleep Tuesday night at the age of 88.

The retired head of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was an uncharged central figure in a child sex-abuse case that involves the alleged shuffling of predator priests to unwitting parishes, the AP reports.

Bevilacqua died days after lawyers battled over his competence to testify at an upcoming trial at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary—in the Philadelphia suburb of Wynnewood—after battling dementia and an undisclosed form of cancer, an archdiocese spokeswoman told the AP.

He had been the spiritual leader of the 1.5 million-member Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1988 until his retirement in 2003.

The Post-Gazette is reporting after he retired in 2003, he left the cardinal's residence on City Avenue for the apartment at the seminary and rarely appeared in public.

Cardinal Bevilacqua, who was bishop of the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese from 1983 to 1987, was emblematic of the church to which he had devoted himself since age 14: progressive on some social-justice issues, staunchly orthodox on matters of doctrine and sexuality, and unfailingly deferential to the will of Rome, according to the PG.

More here-

http://plum-oakmont.patch.com/articles/former-pgh-catholic-bishop-anthony-bevilaqua-died-tuesday-night

Churches struggle with declining congregations

From Philadelphia-

For a while, it seemed as if the new year would be anything but happy for the members of St. James Episcopal Church in Prospect Park.

The 106-year-old Delaware County congregation was so mired in debt that it couldn't pay its rector. Closing seemed imminent.

Just 10 minutes away, in Ridley Township, Leiper Presbyterian Church faced a different challenge: a small, aging membership, with only 30 coming to Sunday services.

Leiper, founded in 1818, voted to dissolve, an acknowledgment of hurdles too steep to overcome. Its last service will be at 2 p.m. Sunday.

St. James fought and survived - for now. It will install a part-time rector Jan. 28.

While the public eye is focused on the troubles of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia - which announced Friday that it would close four high schools, and shutter or merge 44 elementary schools - the struggles of St. James Episcopal and Leiper Presbyterian are illustrative of the demographic trends that likewise have battered mainline Protestant congregations.

More here-

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120107_Churches_struggle_with_declining_congregations.html

Community groups join to create a Code Blue shelter for the homeless

From Philadelphia-

For the past few years, whenever Bucks County declared a Code Blue emergency, only homeless people in Lower Bucks had a place to go.

Homeless people in Central and Upper Bucks had to find a way to get to Lower Bucks or stay outside in the cold.

“I think there’s a sense that there are more homeless people in Lower Bucks County than there are in Central and Upper Bucks County,” said the Rev. Lucy Amerman, pastor of Trinity Episcopal Church in Buckingham.

“I don’t know the numbers. I think people who are homeless in Central and Upper Bucks are just less visible. But they’re there. They’re definitely there,” she said.

Bob Clark, facility manager at Covenant Church in Buckingham, said people regularly call or walk into his church seeking help.

Trinity Episcopal Church, Covenant Church and several other area churches and community service organizations have joined to offer the homeless in Central and Upper Bucks a place to stay on nights when temperatures drop below 20 degrees. The churches and service organizations call themselves the Coalition to Shelter and Support the Homeless.

More here-

http://www.phillyburbs.com/my_town/doylestown/community-groups-join-to-create-a-code-blue-shelter-for/article_991aa4aa-29ae-5992-b6ed-9364e39cde79.html

Judge: Church of the Good Shepherd Rector Must Leave

From Philadelphia -

After a protracted legal battle, Church of the Good Shepherd rector Rev. David Moyer must step down from his post as head of the Bryn Mawr parish, Philly.com is reporting a Montgomery County judge ruled on Aug. 25.

Moyer will no longer be allowed to perform mass, administrative duties, or live in the rectory.

Moyer, 60, is known for his conservative views on gay-marriage, gay clergy, and the role of women in the church. He was critical of Episcopal Diocese of Philadelphia Bishop Charles Bennison's stances on these matters, and barred Bennison from preaching at Good Shepherd.

The rector, who has been with Good Shepherd for 21 years, was originally defrocked by the Episcopal Diocese of Philadelphia in 2002 for 'breaking communion" before unsuccessfully counter suing Bennison for wrongful termination in 2008.

More here-

http://brynmawr.patch.com/articles/judge-church-of-the-good-shepherd-rector-must-leave

Religious items stolen from Point Breeze church

From Philadelphia-

POLICE are investigating a break-in and theft of nearly a dozen religious objects from an Episcopal church in Point Breeze.

Sometime between 2:30 p.m. Sunday and 6 a.m. yesterday, someone broke into the 22nd Street entrance to St. Simon the Cyrenian Church, at 22nd and Reed streets, police said.

A church caretaker reported that 11 bronze items were missing, including crosses, candleholders and collection plates, police said. No estimate of the value of the stolen items was given.

Church officer Helen Johnston said that $200 cash was also stolen from a second-floor office, along with the church's water meter and food from the kitchen.

Johnston said that she didn't know how the church would be able to replace the stolen items, especially the crosses that she carries to the altar during Sunday services. She said that her church would contact other Episcopal churches in the area to ask about borrowing their crosses.

More here-

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/127814293.html

New assistant at St. Paul’s faced cultural shift in Anglican Church

From Philadelphia-

When Emmanuel Ato “Manny” Mercer, the new assistant rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill, made the 5,700-mile trip from Ghana to Atlanta in 2000, little did he know just how that journey would change his life.

In Ghana as a young man he had attended an Anglican all-boys secondary school. After a mandatory year of national service, during which he taught civics, environmental studies and English in a junior high school, he enrolled in the Saint Nicholas Theological Seminary in Cape Coast, earning a licentiate in theology in 1998.

“Right after seminary I was posted in a little town,” Mercer said in a recent interview. “After two years, I decided to come to the United States to study for a Master of Divinity degree at Emory University.”

His hope was to take what he learned here and return to Ghana and teach at the seminary, but that began to change the first weekend he was in the States.

“When I came to the United States I didn’t know where I was going to worship,” he said.
He found All Saints Episcopal Church on the Internet. It was at All Saints that he began to face the cultural differences that exist between branches of the Anglican Communion in Ghana and the United States. The Communion is a worldwide federation of 38 autonomous provinces, all of which are in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury and, therefore, each other. An Anglican from one province is welcome to worship or, if ordained, to minister in any other.

More here-

http://chestnuthilllocal.com/blog/2011/08/02/new-assistant-at-st-paul’s-faced-cultural-shift-in-anglican-church/

Bensalem church to close

From Philadelphia-


The church was built in 1962, but the parish community dates back 1842.

Amid the brightly lit businesses and hurried dash of traffic, an unimposing sign on Street Road in Bensalem announces an end to one of the community's oldest churches.

The Christ Episcopal Church of Eddington at 2026 Street Road will close this Sunday, officials said. Bishop Rodney Michel will lead a 4 p.m. farewell service for the approximately two dozen members still active in the parish.

The two-story church building was constructed in 1962, but the parish community dates to 1842, according to church records. The former Christ Episcopal chapel, which also was on Street Road, was condemned in the 1960s during construction of Interstate 95, parishioners said.

More here-

http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/the_intelligencer_news/bensalem-church-to-close/article_74895859-06af-50df-99db-a9d2b2ee356d.html

Episcopal bishop appeals decision to defrock him

From Philadelphia via California-

A panel of Episcopal bishops met Tuesday to hear arguments in the appeal of a Pennsylvania bishop who was ordered defrocked for covering up his brother's child sexual abuse more than 30 years ago.

Unless he is successful in his appeal, Charles Bennison Jr., 66, bishop of the Diocese of Pennsylvania, will be ousted from the priesthood.

The panel of eight bishops heard three hours of arguments but adjourned without indicating when it would rule. The panel was to have nine members, but Bishop Wayne Wright of the Diocese of Delaware recused himself for reasons that were not immediately clear.

The case marks only the fourth trial of a bishop in the history of the Episcopal church, said Bennison's attorney, James Pabarue, who argued that case should be dismissed because the charges were brought too late and officials withheld evidence.

Bennison was found guilty by a church panel in 2008 of covering up a sexual relationship that his brother, John, began with a 14-year-old girl when Bennison was rector of St. Mark's Church in Upland, Calif., in the Diocese of Los Angeles. John Bennison was a youth group leader at the church.

More here-

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_15012870

Suspended Episcopal bishop making final appeal

From The Philadelphia Inquirer-


In his last chance to save his career, suspended Episcopal Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr. will ask a church appeals panel Tuesday to restore him as head of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.
In 2008, a lower church court found Bennison, now 66, guilty of failing to respond adequately when, as rector of a California parish in the 1970s, he discovered that his brother John was sexually abusing a minor girl of his parish.

That court ordered Bennison permanently removed as head of the 55,000-member diocese - comprising Philadelphia, Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware and Chester Counties - and defrocked as a bishop and a priest. He became bishop in 1998.

The Court of Review for the Trial of a Bishop, made up of nine U.S. bishops, will convene 10 a.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church in Wilmington to hear the appeal.

Bennison's lawyer, James Pabarue, has indicated he will argue that the sentences are too harsh and that Episcopal Church leaders may have suppressed exculpatory evidence from the 2008 trial.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/20100504_Suspended_Episcopal_bishop_making_final_appeal.html

PENNSYLVANIA: Bishop appeals church court's decision

From Episcopal New Service-

Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania Bishop Charles Bennison on Jan. 19 appealed a decision by an ecclesiastical trial court, asking that a 2008 ruling that the bishop engaged in conduct unbecoming a member of the clergy be overturned.

After Bennison's 2008 trial, the church's Court for the Trial of a Bishop found in February 2009 that 35 years ago when Bennison was rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Upland, California, he failed to respond properly after learning that his brother, John Bennison, a 24-year-old seminary student (later deacon and priest) whom he had hired as youth minister, was "engaged in a sexually abusive and sexually exploitive relationship" with a minor parishioner. The abuse allegedly lasted for more than three years from the time the minor was 14 years old.

Charles Bennison was found to have failed to discharge his pastoral obligations to the girl, the members of her family, and the members of the parish youth group as well as church authorities after he learned of his brother's behavior. The court said that he suppressed the information about his brother until 2006, when he disclosed publicly what he knew.

A Jan. 19 news release from Bennison's attorneys said the appeal to the Court of Review for the Trial of a Bishop argues that the charges stem from incidents that began more than 30 years ago and should never have come to trial. It also said that the Court for the Trial of a Bishop should not have called for Bennison to be deposed from the ordained ministry of the Episcopal Church because he was not involved in the sexual abuse.

The bishop has been inhibited or barred from exercising his ordained ministry by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori since October 2007 when he was first ordered to stand trial.

A chronology of the Bennison case is available in this Sept. 25 ENS story.

http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/81803_118633_ENG_HTM.htm