The sad decline of St Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan

Paralleling the decline of Episcopal Church.

St Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, where your Tatler was a parishioner long ago, used to be one of the richest parishes in the US. Now it is going broke. Attendance is way down, 36% since 2019, and still declining. Donations are down as well and its once substantial endowment is dwindling away, owing to the church dipping into it to pay the bills.

Hardest hit is the church’s boarding school, which trains boys for its celebrated choir, one that rivals the finest in Britain, including the King’s College Choir, Cambridge. The school is turning over its boarding operations to an outside firm in hopes of freeing up funds. Meanwhile, capital projects are being deferred or cut back, which is the kiss of death for organizations like this unless it can find a way to boost revenues, a difficult task when attendance and donations are in steep decline.

How did this formerly well-to-do institution find itself in the hole? COVID is partly to blame, but attendance did not rise to former levels when the virus had run its course, meaning those absent parishioners are worshipping elsewhere or, a common malaise in the Episcopal Church, staying home Sundays or going to the golf course instead.

This is speculation on Bickerstaff’s part, but the fact is the church, formerly Orthodox Anglican, has gone soft, with its clergy staff including two openly gay priests living together, as well a woman priest who is married to the rector (the church is also over-staffed). As is often said, “go woke, go broke,” a fate that has befallen many formerly rich Anglican parishes both here and abroad.

Veteran reporter of Orthodox Anglican churches David Virtue provides far more details on the miserable state of finances at St Thomas Church.

Thanks to WJT