The Episcopal Church is a story of renewal, not decline

(RNS) — This year we announced a new congregation: Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit/Iglesia Episcopal del Espíritu Santo in Kingston, New York.

The new name reflects new life for two congregations whose ministries have stretched over 150 years in Kingston, a city of 25,000 in Ulster County along the Hudson River. For the past two years, St. John’s and Holy Cross – Santa Cruz have worked to become one. They now worship together.

There is real grief in these changes — the loss of a building, a name, individual identities as congregations. But there is real hope, too. The new community is intercultural and multilingual. It did not exist a year ago.

I’ve served in New York as a lay leader and clergy for three decades. I first visited feeding programs at these two congregations in the 1990s. The new Church of the Holy Spirit is exceptional, but what’s happening in Kingston isn’t unique. It offers a picture of congregational life across the Diocese of New York.

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop the Rt. Rev. Sean Rowe is reconfiguring the wider structures of the Episcopal Church to better support local communities.

Through this work, we have come to believe that our story is…