New Ploy to Resurrect a Dead Episcopal Church: Eliminate Sunday Services!

St.Stephen's Episcopal parish in Philadelphia was pronounced dead back in 2016, but it refuses to go away. A novel experiment is going to see if the dead can be revived by doing away with Sunday services, preaching about 815's flawed "Great Cloud of Witnesses", and renting the space out for performing arts. In their words (selected from various pages on their web site),

"St. Stephen's is a historic parish, established in Philadelphia in 1823. In 2017, St. Stephen's was reborn as a new model of church, one that is redefining the idea of congregation and forging a non-traditional path. Much has changed since 1823, and spirituality is no exception. St. Stephen's is committed to meeting this new challenge, to looking toward the future while celebrating our history and journey.Unlike typical parishes, St. Stephen’s doesn’t hold Sunday services. Instead, we focus on weekday worship and reflection."

"Weekday Service | Our intimate Eucharist services focus on the lectionary of the saints and holy people. We commemorate important events in the year of the church as found in the Book of Common Prayer."

"The sanctuary is open for drop-in counsel with Father Peter, prayer, meditation and viewing of the historical art and architecture. " 

"For the most part, our weekday services celebrate holy women and holy men with stories, biographies and scripture readings drawn from the Episcopal Church’s lectionary of the saints and holy people, On a Great Cloud of Witnesses, a compendium with the stories of exemplary individuals to be read in services along with the lessons from scripture.

Not all of those people are holy as I reported back in 2011 and in 2015,

Such holy women and men—some historical, some not martyrs or saints, and some of our own period--are intended to be models for the way we lead our everyday lives. The services at Saint Stephen’s build on that intent to further reflect on the significance of these special people for us in our own world as we seek to follow the Gospel."

"St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church is a historic parish with a contemporary mission: to create a new model of urban church that redefines congregation through a commitment to worship and the arts. We believe the shared experience of art inspires connection, empathy and reflection. "

"St. Stephen’s invites artists into our sanctuary to question, create, strengthen our community and challenge our assumptions and practices as a church. As we hold daily worship, so too do we produce annual performance series and support rehearsal and presenting opportunities for Philadelphia artists. We also bring fresh approaches and voices to the interpretation of our sanctuary space, where works of prominent 19th-century architects, sculptors, designers and stained glass artists contribute to the meaning and atmosphere of our building, the oldest extant example of the Gothic Revival style in Philadelphia."

A look at their average Sunday attendance (ASA) shows that in 2017 ASA was 10 souls and plate and pledge was 25,000.

From now on ASA will be zero which should make reporting their statistics a lot simpler.

Their first performance will be tomorrow,

The Future of Jazz Piano: Micah ThomasThursday, May 30, 20197:00 PM  8:30 PM

WWPD (What would Paul do?)