When Bishop Mark Beckwith blesses the launch of Good Shepherd Episcopal Church of Lincoln Park & Montville on June 8, it will mark the formal end of a methodical process that started more than seven years earlier, and the beginning of a new ministry and mission. The unification of St. Andrew’s in Lincoln Park and Church of the Transfiguration in Towaco (a section of Montville) was affirmed in January at Diocesan Convention.
More than four years ago, two other churches farther north completed a comparable journey by unifying into what is now Trinity Episcopal Church of Allendale. (See For four parishes, a time to embrace – and collaborate.) The two unifications followed similar paths, which is no coincidence, since Trinity leaders and Episcopal House played consulting roles in the formation of what is becoming Good Shepherd.
A seven-year discernment process
Transfiguration and St. Andrew’s, which are about two miles apart in northeast Morris County, took their first step toward unification in 2007. The churches voted that summer to become “linked parishes” with a common priest, music director and treasurer. That priest initially was the Rev. Richard Andersen, who was serving as interim priest at Transfiguration. In 2009, the Rev. David Cabush was named priest in charge of the linked churches, and today serves as rector.
The two congregations continued to worship separately for a time, but in 2010 the leadership decided to combine the services, with an 8 a.m. Rite I service at one church and a 10 a.m. Rite II service at the other. (The locations rotate quarterly, except during the summer, when all services are held at the air conditioned Transfiguration church.) The vestries began meeting together, and discussions about full unification accelerated.
(Don’t call it a merger, by the way. All parties involved have avoided that term, with its connotations of corporate takeover and downsizing.)
When a church closes – or in this case, fundamentally transforms and reidentifies itself – it can be a traumatic experience for parishioners with decades of attachment to a parish. But “I’m not getting any negative feedback – people are into it,” Cabush said. “Most of what I hear from people is, ‘let’s get on with it.’ We’re looking forward to having officially one name.”
Benefits and challenges
The main impetus for unification, of course, was financial. Transfiguration and St. Andrew’s were parishes of similar size with similar budgetary pressures, and “we ran the risk of both churches closing within two years,” Cabush said. “So this was the way forward.”
But there are non-financial benefits to unification as well. “When we began to worship together, we now had a critical mass of people. Rather than 25 people scattered in a large building, we had 70 people,” Cabush said, adding that the higher number is the combination of the two services.
Some important financial challenges still remain. In the interest of getting both congregations to agree to the unification, the leadership postponed dealing with the emotionally charged issues of the two church buildings and the two parish administrators. Both buildings house nursery schools that produce income, and the parish administrators “are integral to the functioning of both nursery schools,” Cabush said.
Fortunately the two long-time parish administrators have complementary talents, and are splitting the work for the combined church accordingly. Kathy Nardone in Lincoln Park focuses on financial work, and Trina Ehntholt in Montville does communications. Alan Lynch continues to serve as minister of music for the combined churches, and the Rev. Deacon Diane Riley remains as non-stipendiary deacon.
Cabush, who is part-time, is realistic about further changes ahead. “It’s going to have to dawn on [the parish], by virtue of the reality of the numbers as they emerge in the future, as to what is sustainable and what isn’t.”
Stronger after unification
The church that is now Trinity, Allendale, made exactly the same choice regarding the buildings: keep them both in the short term. But the Rev. Michael Allen, then and now the first rector of Trinity, said events played a strong role in making a decision quickly. Before that unification was even ratified by the 2010 Diocesan Convention, a fire started accidentally by an outside organization caused extensive damage at one of the two legacy churches, Good Shepherd in Midland Park. Rebuilding was not feasible, so Trinity consolidated at what had been Epiphany Church in Allendale. The Midland Park property was sold, and now houses an Assyrian Orthodox Church. The proceeds of the sale support ministry at Trinity.
More than four years later, Trinity Allendale is a stronger parish, Allen said. The church went through a membership decline in the aftermath of the unification, but now new families are joining Trinity with no history at either of the legacy churches. Even among long-time parishioners, “people don’t say, this is how we did it at Good Shepherd, this is how we did it at Epiphany. It’s Trinity now,” Allen said. The church is renovating its parish hall, another sign of the new ministry emerging at Trinity.
Resources available
Episcopal House has resources in place to help congregations reinvent, reimagine and repurpose themselves. The Rev. Greg Jacobs, Canon to the Ordinary, has worked closely with the unifying congregations. Bernie Milano, a warden at Epiphany and later Trinity, consulted with the new Good Shepherd, and serves on a diocesan pastoral response team that is available to other congregations.
There are just over 100 congregations in the diocese, and Jacobs said 43 of them have part-time clergy. He expects more unifications in the years ahead – perhaps next at St. Luke’s in Hope and St. Mary’s in Belvidere, two congregations near each other in Warren County, where the leadership has been talking together for two years.
He advised congregations that are looking at models of shared ministry to let the process evolve over time. “You don’t have to be talking about unification from Day One. Talk about where it would be a benefit to both of your congregations to start engaging in shared ministry,” Jacobs said, mentioning a combined youth ministry as a possible example.
Jacobs stressed that in all these cases, the congregations themselves have led the unification process, with Episcopal House in a supporting role. “We’re not pushing any one model of ministry as the true and correct one,” he said.
Still, some models are preferable to others, and the key is to start talking and taking action before the financial situation becomes desperate. At about the same time Trinity Allendale was being formed, Christ Church in Belleville faced a financial crisis that came to a head quickly. The church, founded in 1746 with a land grant in Belleville from King George II of England, voted to close in 2009. The 40 remaining Belleville members were welcomed in nearby Clifton, where the rector there, the Rev. Peter DeFranco, said they brought new energy to St. Peter’s.
