[Episcopal News Service] Worshippers gather Sundays inside the nave at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Altoona, Pennsylvania, just like they always have, with no reason to notice anything different – despite a big change that took effect there three weeks ago.
The pews and altar are the same. The same organ accompanies the hymns. The schedule of services still alternates between Holy Eucharist and Morning Prayer, depending on the availability of supply priests. And the worshippers are mostly the same, typically about 12-15 familiar faces, some of whom have been attending St. Luke’s for many years.
What’s different is that the congregation is now a tenant instead of the owner of its building in downtown Altoona, a city of about 44,000 in the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. On July 26, the congregation finalized the sale of its property to Chris Cook, a local contractor and property manager whose family businesses specialize in historic preservation. Cook, as the new owner, agreed to lease the sanctuary to St. Luke’s, as well as other facilities used for St. Luke’s food pantry, ensuring the church will remain open after years of budget tightening.
An improved financial outlook is another big change for the congregation, which hasn’t been able to afford a full-time priest in more than a decade, junior warden Woody Pyeatt told Episcopal News Service. The congregation had been drawing down its savings to cover building maintenance costs, raising concerns that the church eventually would be forced to close. The small but active congregation wasn’t ready to give up.
“We just felt like God hadn’t washed his hands of us,” Pyeatt said.
Cook’s company already was familiar with the property, after it previously was hired to complete maintenance and renovation work on the church. The cost of such improvements was a growing burden for St. Luke’s. It still owed money to the diocese for a loan that covered upgrades to make the building more accessible to people with disabilities. The congregation also was paying more than $10,000 a year for heating and other utilities, Pyeatt said.
“It was clear that one new roof or boiler replacement or something like that, and that was it. … We would be out of money,” he said.
A little more than a year ago, Cook proposed buying the property and leasing back space so the congregation could continue worshipping there. Cook envisioned turning the campus’ several buildings into a kind of community center, while renting the sanctuary to the public for weddings, banquets and other events – at times when St. Luke’s wasn’t using it for worship.
“From the beginning, this church has always had a special place in my heart,” Cook said in a July 26 Facebook post announcing his purchase was finalized. “We used the theater space as a rehearsal hall throughout High School for numerous productions,” he said, and though he isn’t a member of St. Luke’s, he recalled his family attending “multiple church services” there and “our fair share of pancake and sausage Shrove Tuesday celebrations.”