I recently came across an article on the Huffington Post website entitled “The Withering of a Church Between Pastors” by Mark Osler, a professor of law at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. Osler describes how “my Episcopal church is fading before my eyes. Several months ago (because I usually arrive later for services), I would find myself wedged into the last few seats in the back of the church. Then a few months ago, I began to find plenty of seats, even for a latecomer. Now, there is row after row of empty pews as I walk in. The service is short, in large part because the offering is taken and communion distributed in record time. My church is emptying out.”
Osler’s church is “in the interim between the unexpected departure of our rector and the hiring of a new one.” But Osler is not optimistic that his parish will be revived once the new pastor arrives. He sees its problems as symptomatic of the Episcopal Church as a whole: “In a pew several ahead of me and on the other side of the aisle, a child drops a small green ball. She turns to watch from her father’s arms as it rolls, unimpeded by feet and bags, slowly toward the back of the church. She reaches out but is helpless. Soon, it is out of sight and gone, and in her eyes I see a familiar sad resignation.”
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