WYOMING: Parish's Slow Death Symptomatic of ECUSA's Moral Decline
News Analysis
By David W. Virtue

CASPER, WY: (5/14/2006)--At one time, St. Mark's in Casper, Wyoming was a thriving orthodox parish of 1,100 souls. Its then rector was the Rev. Royce Brown, a moderate parish priest, and open to all sides of the theological spectrum. He was the much-loved parish priest there for 18 years. He retired in September 2004.

In 1998 he brought into his church a new assistant, the Rev. Thomas Johnson, 48, a former evangelical pastor from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod where he had been a pastor for eight years. "I got to know the Anglican Church when I was working in Central America," he told VirtueOnline. "As result, when I returned to the U.S. I sought ordination in the Episcopal Church through St. Mark's because this was my hometown." Later that year he was ordained by the Rt. Rev. Bruce Caldwell.

That was in 1998. Then, St. Mark's was the largest attended parish in the whole Diocese of Wyoming. Now it is a church in decline. Today it is a mere shadow of its former self. A call to the church office revealed that Sunday attendance at services range from a little over 100 on a good Sunday down to the low twenties on a bad Sunday. Two services have now been consolidated into one.

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