SALAMANCA — St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on Wildwood Avenue will host its final worship service Sunday, Feb. 23 as its members end 160 years as a parish. March 1 is the anticipated date for closure.
Steve Brundage, junior warden and vestry member, said this heartbreaking decision to close the church was made in the last few weeks after the full vestry consulted with the Episcopal Diocese. He said they have been working to avoid this extreme decision for a year, or so, and had hoped to avoid this decision at all costs but were unable to.
According to Brundage, a 55-year member of St. Mary’s whose family has attended the church for four generations, the decision was not made due to low membership or dwindling numbers of attendees at worship services, which is often the case with other churches across the country. He said the church has a good number of loyal parishioners each week and new members had recently joined.
“This decision was made solely on the fact that we are financially unable to make needed repairs to the structures,” he said. “The diocese has determined that the physical structures of our church will require between $2 to $3 million to repair roofing and wear and tear. Unfortunately, we are not in a financial position to correct this.”
St. Mary’s Church is part of the Episcopal Partnership Dioceses of Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania. Brundage has no idea what will become of the buildings — the diocese owns the property.
Brundage said Rev. Michael Lonto was rector at St. Mary’s for almost 15 years and has retired. He said Rev. Rebecca Harris has served as the current rector for almost three years.
The church has always been active. Brundage said it’s been a meeting place for organizations including Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Girl Scout troops and the Masons. He said offering organizations a place to meet, along with the weekly church service, has made the church a necessary part of the community.
St. Mary’s has also supported the community by hosting the annual Cystic Fibrosis (CF) fundraiser walk for the past 17 years. Brundage said the event is the largest CF fundraising walk in Western New York (WNY) and includes over 300 St. Bonaventure University athletes each year. He said the walk, along with Salamanca resident Andy Herrick, was recently honored at the WNY CF banquet in Buffalo.
“Additionally, in 2023 and 2024, St. Mary’s was the headquarters for several diocesan meetings including and led by Bishop Sean Rowe, who was recently appointed the Presiding Episcopal Bishop of the United States and presided at Jimmy Carter’s funeral two weeks ago,” he said.
CITY HISTORIAN Jim Griffith, a lifelong member of St. Mary’s, said he is sorry circumstances came together to cause their little parish to close. He said it’s a victim of the demise of many “denominational” churches and a victim of failing infrastructure.
“We understand our vestry had few options and thank them for diligently exploring all of them,” he said.
Griffith said St. Mary’s was once one of the community’s most active and vibrant churches. As a child, he recalls all the pews filled, a 25-member choir, three ladies auxiliaries, an active Sunday School, and an active youth group.
“Over the decades, the congregation consisted of most of the leaders of the community, including doctors, lawyers, judges and leading business families,” he said. “Like so many others, we feel a bit of angst over this closing as our family loved ones were baptized, married and buried in the sanctuary of our ‘little red church in the vale.’”
Griffith provided information from a brochure celebrating St. Mary’s 100th anniversary in 1965. The information gives a detailed history of the church’s 160 years of existence.
Excerpts taken from the publication said the church’s roots go back to 1863 when the Rev. P.P. Kidder, rector at St. John’s Church in Ellicottville, became missionary to a small parish at Great Valley.
That year, he occasionally preached to a small congregation at Bucktooth. The first services led to the formation of St. Mary’s as a church body. Two years later, in 1865, 34 people gathered to form a parish.
According to the brochure, services were held in a railroad coach on a siding near the stockyards at Bucktooth until the first church was completed, in 1865, on the south side of Washington Street in what became West Salamanca. Rev. Julius H. Waterbury was the first rector.
The church was used for regular services until about 1873 when services were moved to the home of James Williams on East River Street, which is now Wildwood Avenue. It was not until early in 1879 that St. Mary’s Church opened its doors at 99 Wildwood Ave.
