St. John’s Episcopal parish bravely marks its final rites

By Priyanka Dayal
TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

WORCESTER — Along with the hymn books and prayer guides, there were packets of tissues at St. John’s Episcopal Church yesterday on a table parishioners passed on the way to the pews.

By the end of the nearly three-hour service, just about everyone needed a tissue. It was the last service for a parish that has been in existence for 125 years. St. John’s, at 166 Holden St., is the first area Episcopal church in years to shutter its doors because of financial constraints and a decline in active members.

About 100 people were in the church yesterday; many of them having returned to the same pews, facing the same stained-glass images of St. John, every Sunday morning for decades. the rest