Archdiocese to close Manayunk church
St. Mary of the Assumption was only used occasionally after merging with another Manayunk parish in 2012. It will cease worship Nov. 1.
A MANAYUNK CHURCH building will cease operating as a worship site effective Nov. 1, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced yesterday.
St. Mary of the Assumption Church, on Conarroe Street near Silverwood, merged in 2012 with St. John the Baptist Parish, a handful of blocks away at Rector and Cresson streets.
Repairs that could total as much as $1.4 million are looming for the aging 120-year-old St. John the Baptist building, Archbishop Charles Chaput said, in a decree dated Sept. 29 and released yesterday.
The church has paid $138,000 in yearly upkeep costs for the three-building St. Mary complex, and $218,000 in repairs are needed for continued use of the property, Chaput said. The pastor of St. John the Baptist, Monsignor Kevin Lawrence, had asked Chaput to consider closing the building.
"The parish does not have the resources to continue to repair and to maintain St. Mary of the Assumption Church without negatively impacting the ministries of the parish," Chaput wrote.
The Archdiocese didn't say what's next for the St. Mary buildings, and two spokesmen did not respond to Daily News requests for comment yesterday.
When St. Mary and another Manayunk parish, St. Josaphat, merged with St. John the Baptist, parishioners began to attend regular Mass at St. John the Baptist. St. Mary has been used for weddings, funerals and occasional Masses.
The announcement of the closure comes one week after similar news of a worship site in Fallsington, Bucks County. Members of St. Joseph the Worker Parish were absorbed into St. Frances Cabrini Parish, in Fairless Hills, in July 2014. Worship at St. Joseph the Worker will end Nov. 1.
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