The future of Calvary St. Andrews Church in the South Wedge — if it has one — should become clearer in the coming months. On the table: closing the church and disbanding the congregation, moving the congregation somewhere else, or rebooting the church on its current site.
Like many urban churches in recent years, Calvary St. Andrews has experienced a significant drop in participation. It has approximately 50 members, and about 25 regularly come to Sunday service.
“We’re looking at all options,” says John Wilkinson, moderator of the Administrative Commission for Calvary St. Andrews. “We don’t want to prop it up just to prop it up. We need to have a vision and mission in order to move ahead.”
The commission will make a recommendation on the church’s future in the coming months to the Presbytery of Genesee Valley. The Presbytery owns the historic church and has the final say on its future.
Calvary St. Andrews, on the corner of Ashland Street and Averill Avenue, is a combined Presbyterian and Episcopal congregation and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
John Page, executive director of the South Wedge Planning Committee, says the church is an institution in the neighborhood.
“It’s something that people relied on for many years,” he says. “We’re afraid of what happens next. If it’s not a church, if it’s not the same facility, what happens next? And how do you develop a site like that, that’s so tight?”
The church takes up just about the entire corner lot, with little space left over. It’s surrounded by housing.
The congregation does want to keep its popular emergency food program and community garden going, no matter what happens to the church, Wilkinson says. The program serves residents throughout the city.
This article appears in Feb 8-14, 2017.
A little more history and additional photos would have been nice. All this article told me is the congregation may disband. Opportunity lost.
The church’s history is interwoven with Rochester’s sociocultural and religious history. The leadership of the visionary Algernon Crapsey, who was defrocked from the ministry for heresy, was based at then-St. Andrew’s. The first kindergarten in Rochester grew from recognition by the Crapseys of the need for good and nurturing care of young children in the neighborhood. Major American poet Adelaide Crapsey was a daughter. The Sibley and Watson families of Western Union fame and fortune worshipped there and were great supporters of Rev. Crapsey and his family. The religious furnishings including a remarkable marble altarpiece were designed by Rochester artist George Haushalter and are still in their original places. Racial justice and gay rights were embraced by the congregation and all were welcome in worship. The dismantling of it would be a tremendous loss on many levels.