By BETH ZUMWALT
The final service at St. James Episcopal Church in Griggsville will be this weekend. Service will start at 10 a.m.
Lori Stickman Stauffer has been a member of the church all of her life and says although the closing is sad, it was inevitable.
“We were down to ap-proximately eight regular attendees,” she said. “Our congregation was an older one and the pandemic did not help us. Things just aren’t sustainable.”
Stauffer said the decision to close the church was made by the Diocese in Chicago.
She said she is not sure what will happened to the church building or the vicarage nest door, where the priest lived.
“Our priest is 90 years old,” Stauffer said. “I’m sure everything will eventually be sold.”
The Episcopal Church is the same religion practiced by the Royal Family in England, according to Stauffer.
“It is extremely similar to the Catholic Church, except we are not under the Pope,” she said. “Other than that, the services are interchangeable.
