Online worship during the pandemic
The pandemic changed the rhythms of worship at St. Mark’s, as it did in many communities. A surviving 2021 webpage directed visitors to services on the parish’s YouTube channel. A reflection prepared by Tyrone Fowlkes for a diocesan meeting on 15 October 2020 speaks to that period of uncertainty and the search for hope.[7][15]
The closure request and final service
The diocesan convention journal records that on 6 March 2022 the vestry told the bishop the parish could no longer remain open and requested closure. It records the final service on 24 April 2022. Title to the parish’s real property passed to the diocesan Trustees.[8]
Those dates are important because a closure announcement on the diocese’s current website carries a displayed date in 2024. The convention record establishes the parish’s actual closing year as 2022.[2][8]
The parish’s closing year
St. Mark’s had begun with a service at Enloe High School in May 1963. Almost fifty-nine years later, its final service closed a particular chapter of community life. The dates span almost fifty-nine years of parish activity.[1][8]