Downriver

The Downriver Deanery Annual Report, 2022

Our Deanery includes Saint Luke’s, Allen Park; Trinity, Belleville; Resurrection, Ecorse; Saint James, Grosse Ile; Saint Michael and All Angels, Lincoln Park; Trinity, Monroe; Grace, Southgate; Christ the King, Taylor (closed); Saint Thomas, Trenton; and Saint Stephen’s, Wyandotte. We meet three times a year for fellowship, support, and education. Attendance averages between 20-35 people. This has held true throughout the pandemic, as we’ve met on Zoom and occasionally in person. We include a time for a speaker (or Convention prep) and time for check in from each congregation. During the remaining time, we hear the Dean’s Report, the Diocesan Council Representative’s Report and our Treasurer’s Report.

Our Clericus is active, meeting monthly except in July and August. We meet in person last year, welcoming the Rev. Jim Bischoff to Trinity Monroe and the Rev. MaryJane Peck to St. Thomas Trenton, both as interims at the time. We prayed and supported retired clergy member, the Rev. Diane Morgan, as she grieved and dealt with serious health challenges.

The Rev. Lynda Carter has continued to lead Prayer in the Park on the river in Wyandotte, assisted by the Rev. Paula Miller and the Rev. Tom Ferguson. This year weather was more of a factor than in previous years, with several thunderstorms causing cancellation. Still, a faithful crowd gathered to praise God in the lovely location on the Detroit River.

Below is a short update on each congregation, in alphabetical order by city:

St. Luke’s in Allen Park has been slowly recuperating from the pandemic. While some of those that once came in person have left, some new parishioners have joined. There were also some from Christ the King that chose to come to St. Luke’s when they closed in May. The vestry has called the Rev. Mitch Yudasz as Rector, and will have a celebration of new ministry in the near future. Ideas for not only bringing in new members, but also for bringing in some revenue have been discussed and are being looked into.

At Trinity Belleville, lots of events took place: Bible study during Lent, a potluck after Easter service, and Worship Under the Big Top (July 4-August 30) — a teaching series using the Old Testament texts. Folders with maps and charts were passed out for people to review and study. The last two Sundays we played Pin the Tail on the Tribes, using post-it notes. We had a cookout/potluck after the first and last service of the series. Trinity participated in this year’s 2st Annual Lake Fest in downtown Belleville by selling their famous Strawberry Pies. Small groups met regularly: a walking group, Tuesday Lunch Bunch, TED talk theology via Zoom, and a Beginners Spanish group. On September 11 we said goodbye to Martha Hanoian, our Director of Christian Formation and Outreach, who took a full time position as the Director for the Belleville Area Chamber of Commerce.

Resurrection Ecorse continues to meet faithfully, typically only with a few people offering and participating in Morning Prayer worship on Sundays. Volunteers have joined with two other churches (including Runners for Christ, which rents their building) to offer a meal, plus food and toiletries to take home, once a month to the community.

Saint James Grosse Ile has held in-person services for the past nineteen months since Palm Sunday 2021. We post our 8am services on YouTube

<youtube.com/saintjamesgi> and livestream our 10am services on Facebook. Our ASA is approximately 85% of pre-COVID numbers. We are grateful for our parishioners’ generosity, which keeps our books balanced. Beginning in 2022 we resumed major parish ministries, like our blockbuster Rummage Sales, Greens Market, Sunday School, VBS, Bible Studies, Book Groups, etc. We are also proud to sponsor Erica Benson as a Postulant for Holy Orders at Virginia Seminary.

The people of St. Michael’s very committed to one another and to the community of Lincoln Park. A major outreach has been the Blessing Box which was dedicated last year. Since then, its use has been constant and our response to keep it filled has been a daily task. Through chats with those taking advantage of the food and supplies we discovered that they had other needs. That invigorated our planning group who crochet mats for them which are distributed to those homeless by our police department contact. Additionally, we provide food and other products for the nearby women’s shelter. Through Wayne State’s School of Social Work, we partnered with a student intern to compile an up to date list of the agencies in our town that can provide services to those in need. This intern plus the work of a summer seminarian have surveyed of the city residents to get their feedback of their needs. We held two significant services this past year. A special memorial liturgy and dinner recognized eight members and friends who died during the pandemic who we as a congregation were not able to fully honor. Also, we installed Paula Miller as our third Rector. In keeping with pandemic caution, we hosted a drive-by pet blessing and provided Ashes to Go. Our weekly mass is available on livestream and we find we are reaching people beyond our own congregation. These are exciting times as we mark our 95th year of serving the community inside and outside the walls of our church.

In November 2021 Trinity Monroe was excited to welcome the Rev. James M. Bischoff as our Interim Priest after he supplied all of summer. In the final phase, of a multi-year project, of making our facilities barrier free and accessible for all we removed a pew, first of two to be removed, from the middle of the worship space and replaced it with a shorter pew giving space for a person who might be in a wheel chair or in need of more leg space to be surrounded by the congregation rather than being stuck in either the back or the very front. We have continued improving our online presence with our updated website and moving to Facebook Live. We have spent this year renewing and refreshing the rectory, offices, and kitchen appliances – for an old building this is an ongoing project. We continue to welcome new people coming to worship with us and become involved in the life and ministry of Trinity. In June 2022 the Vestry voted to call the Rev. Bischoff to become our Rector/Pastor and he accepted. His Installation will be held on November 3.

At Grace Southgate, as family situations have changed due to personal health during the “age of COVID”, Zoom Conferencing remains a vital component of our ability to engage with congregants for Sunday services, Vestry meetings, and weekly Bible Study sessions. Many folks who had not returned to in person services are beginning to re-engage and all are being invited to a welcome back celebration with games for children and pizza for all following the service on Sunday, September 18th. Our recent average Sunday attendance is between 30-38 persons, which is very good and in line with past Parochial Reports! In the past few months, we have welcomed three new congregants: one from Christ the King, Taylor and two persons who sought us via our website, after experiencing a disheartening experience with the Roman church. We recently baptized one of these persons! We look forward to blessing a Civil Marriage and blessing a 50th Anniversary in the near future. Grace continues to lead Prayer in the Park as it concludes its 8th year, and are grateful for the assistance of St. Michael & All Angels, Lincoln Park and St. Stephen’s, Wyandotte. Open to all persons and frequently observed from cars, Grace was recently asked to celebrate the life of an observer after interacting with the family and decedent following a service. Outreach events are vital to Grace – Southgate, as demonstrated by its outpouring of

support to Ukraine; as it prepares for its 2nd Rummage Sale of the year; and in its support of the Wyandotte Food Kitchen having served several hot meals with bag lunches “to go”, frequently serving 60 persons on six Saturday’s throughout the year. Since the passing of The Rev. Deacon Ken Rasnick, contributions have allowed us to invest in engraved Holy Eucharist Vessels, which will be dedicated to his memory by placing them in service on Sunday, September 25th. His wife, Joan, and persons knowledgeable of Ken’s service with the Veteran’s Court have been invited to attend. Grace – Southgate, a former mission church of St. Stephen’s – Wyandotte is looking forward to celebrating its 70th anniversary in December, 2022!

Christ the King Taylor closed this year, after years of faithful service to Christ. We are grateful for their witness. Many members have found church homes with other downriver Episcopal churches.

St. Thomas Trenton continues to be a vibrant and active church, serving our members and community despite the closing of our Thrift Shop. In October 2021, we sponsored a free concert by the Silver Strings Dulcimer Society. In December 2021, we collected underwear and socks for St. Peter's Corner Shower and Laundry Project in Detroit. In January and February 2022, we collected monetary donations for THAW (The Heat and Warmth fund). In March and April 2022, money was collected for ERD. In June, a pancake Brunch and Raffle was held, the proceeds were sent to ERD as part of the Bishop Perry's 50 days for Ukraine fund-raiser. Locally, we have worked at and collected canned goods, pastas, paper goods and cereals for the Trenton Food Pantry. In 2022 our Outreach Ministry Team has sponsored outings for our church members and their friends and neighbors, including picnics at a local train park, attending a play at the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea, MI, cheering at a Mud Hens baseball game in Toledo, OH, and a Ladies' Day Out visit to the Solanus Casey Center. We have also offered Tai Chi classes and on-going martial arts classes at the church. Future activities in the works include a Salad Luncheon, Bunco Night at the church, and an Advent Tea. We are a small, but busy, group of church members who love St. Thomas and believe in its future. Meetings are always open and new members are welcome.

St. Stephen’s Wyandotte has been working on transitioning to more in person activities during the past year. We continued to broadcast on Facebook Live (which has consistently had higher attendance than our in person worship!), but offered in person worship and Sunday School every week. We had book and video studies and a full suite of Holy Week experiences. In the fall, the Very Rev. Andrea Morrow was installed as Rector, and in June, she took a mini sabbatical. Also in June, our seminarian-turned-deacon, Tom Ferguson, was ordained a priest. Pastor Tom will be staying with us for the next year as our Curate for Social Justice Advocacy and Environmental Engagement. He coordinated the Wyandotte Ministerial Association’s annual summer program to provide kids with food on the weekends, ensuring the delivery of over 1,400 brown bags of groceries to the schools and public library. We’ve also fed people through our Blessings Box, which was built for us last year as an Eagle Scout project. The Blessings Box is emptied almost every day – and local people have started making deliveries of food, in addition to our contributions. We continue to sponsor FedUp Ministries, which operates a food truck to bring food to underserved neighborhoods and provide education about and advocacy to end food insecurity. We raised almost $3,000 for the diocesan collection for Ukraine relief. We continue to offer Compline on Facebook every night. We’ve continued many of our traditions, while adding new ones, such as a Trunk or Treat for the community at Halloween that attracted hundreds of kids, and a Candy Hop in the spring that was even more successful. We’ve transformed some traditions, making the Spaghetti Dinner into a Chili Cook-Off and the Harvest Dinner into Friendsgiving. We welcomed about a dozen people from Christ the King, which closed, and a few new folks who were attracted to our Facebook presence. Like most other churches, we

Finally, as Dean, I’m grateful for my clergy colleagues and all the amazing lay people that make up our Deanery. We are mainly small churches having a big impact. We are blessed to have a sense of community and fellowship in Christ in our Deanery, as well as a clear sense of being the church, even as we find our way forward to what one person aptly called “the new not-normal.”

Respectfully submitted,

The Very Rev. Andrea Morrow, Dean