Harrisburg ELCA Congregation Gives Building to Coptic Orthodox Church

ELCA News Service ^ | 31 December AD 2009 | Barbara Myers

[lightman]

Memorial Lutheran, Harrisburg, PA, soon to become St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Church:

[lightman]

Lutheran Ping!

Christ is Born, Glorify Him!

[lightman]

Ping.

[Kolokotronis]

Orthodox ping

[mrreaganaut]

Ecumenical ping!

(also architectural irony ping, but that’s a really small list)

[stayathomemom]

That photo reminds me so much of my home congregation in Detroit.

[MarkBsnr]

St. Al’s in Dearborn?

[SmithL]

I realize that this situation has nothing to do with the CWA last August, BUT,

Since it takes a two-thirds majority for a congregation to leave the ELCA, I suspect many individuals will leave on their own, causing even more ELCA congregations to have more real estate than they can afford. We may see more of this in the not-too-distant future.

[MarkBsnr]

My hat is off to the Harrisburg church. Thank you for making a light shine in the midst of darkness. Thank you for the truly unselfish gift. May God have mercy and His Blessing upon you in this and in every upcoming year.

[Cacique]

btt

[stayathomemom]

Holy Cross on Grand River near Greenfield.

[Paleo Conservative]

That photo reminds me so much of my home congregation in Detroit.

Is this it?

[hinckley buzzard]

Memorial Lutheran Church, founded 1872, from the ELCA website: Membership listed at 206. Average Sunday attendance 35. Contributing members, 80. Running in deficit since 2002. Looks like they may have been living on savings +/or endowments, which now are exhausted. Church buildings valued at over 4 million dollars but no other assets. No youth confirmed this year or several years prior.

Probably not so much fallout from CWA as just a congregation which has aged, no longer matches the neiughborhood, and has more or less run its course.

Divesting an old building, costly to maintain and likely in need of major improvements, is a way of buying one last lease on life.

[MarkBsnr]

My wife’s home parish was St. Al’s. Similar, but it’s been a few years since I’ve been there. Thanks.

[annalex]

There will be babies in the nursery, children in the Sunday school rooms, women and men in the social hall and kitchen, loving and sharing in the communion of fellowship and hospitality in the church where so many of the lives of faithful Lutherans began

Yes. Thank you, Pastor, and God bless you.

[eleni121]

This happened here too. Now it is a vibrant Coptic Christian Community-—God Bless Saint Mark.

[Mr. Wright]

“no longer matches the neighborhood,”

The nail has definitely been hit on the head. Any similarity between the church members and the people who reside in the surrounding neighborhood is purely coincidental.

[redgolum]

I like stories like this.

I hate to see old churches fall into disrepair. Christ will be proclaimed there still.

I do wonder what type of renovations they will have to do to make things conform to the Orthodox way of doing things.

[annalex]

St. Stephen the First Martyr in Sacramento used to be a Lutheran Church. It is now Tridentine Mass Catholic, standing room only.

[annalex]