St. Michael and All Angels Anglican Church to shut down after 116 years of worship

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

After 116 years of operation, the St. Michael and All Angels Anglican Church will be permanently shutting down in Strathmore.

“The parish has decided that it will cease holding public worship services. The last service will be on April 27,” said Reverend Malcolm Kern. “The parish has been becoming fewer in numbers gradually and the other thing that happens is that each year, everyone gets a year older, which in your thirties and forties it does not make much difference, but in your eighties and nineties, a year can severely reduce the amount of stuff you are physically able to do.”

Kern explained many of the activities the parish was previously able to do in the local community are simply no longer physically possible both due to a lack of numbers of people, as well as due to the ages of parishioners.

He added, even prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were not enough people remaining within the parish to host their annual Shrove Tuesday pancake supper for the community, which had been a tradition for over 100 years.

As public health restrictions began to lift and people began to congregate in person again, the parish found itself migrating from location to location in order to remain financially viable. 

Similarly in this case, worship had begun to be scheduled for Sunday afternoons, which saw its own string of difficulties in attracting people to be in attendance.

“Eventually, the people here, the parish, decided that while we could keep going on and make the money work, maybe it was better to take what resources that the parish still had and use them to try and support others,” said Kern. “There are a number of agencies in town that the parish has supported over the years … we are also going to be making some funds available to support the Indigenous parishes within our diocese, the closest one being St. John the Divine in Siksika.”

As of March 16, Kern reported the St. Michael and All Angels parish was down to approximately 10 people in attendance for worship.

Once the church officially closes its doors, individual parishioners, assuming health and ability to do so, will by their own volition find other congregations to worship with.

“What we are hoping is on the 27 of April, the service will have somewhat of a retrospective of that past 116 years, and in the service, some sort of celebration of that history as well, that business of symbolically passing on the light to those who are still actively engaged in in the gospel of Christ here in Strathmore,” said Kern. “There is not an awful lot of precedent, not an awful lot of predefined structure as to how to do this.”

As has been the case for the last approximately 30 months, the final service offered by St. Michael and All Angels will take place at the Lord of All Lutheran Church.