This week the last Anglo-Catholic Church in Hamilton closed its doors. St. Luke's Church was built in 1898 by the working class people of the North End.

It's a peculiar little church, at the corner of John and Macaulay streets. Simple and dignified inside, plain on the outside, it was built at a time when the North End was populated by Irish and English immigrants.



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Church records reveal St. Luke's was built because the trip over boggy ground and muddy roads to Christ's Church Cathedral on James North was difficult to make.

At the last Sunday service, Rev. Eric Griffin did his best to temper the sadness of its end. The days of the neighbourhood grocery store, gas station and bank are over, he said, and now the church, "But our work here is finished, it was well done, this is not a failure."

St. Luke's is a parish of the Anglican Church of Canada, Diocese of Niagara. Known as a high church, it has ornate ceremonies typical of the Catholic Church, including the use of incense, frequent ringing of bells and in the past, service spoken in Latin.

Though St. Luke's was built to seat 300 worshippers, on the last Sunday service 17 were in attendance. The regular parishioners number just 12.

Joe Conroy is one of them, a member since 1958.

"This has been a poor church since Day 1. The parishioners do everything, we cut the grass, clean the church, do repairs, but it's not enough," he says.

Conroy says it costs about $80,000 a year to run the church, but the small congregation brings in just $30,000 annually.

"The diocese was committed to keeping the Anglo-Catholic church alive in this place," Rev. Griffin says. "For a while they even carried our debt, but it's time, the neighbourhood has changed, what we do well is no longer needed here."

Conroy was married at St. Luke's, his daughter's wedding was held at the church a few months ago. Now he doesn't know where he will worship.

Mark Manchuk, an altar boy at St. Luke's since the age of 14, will travel to Beamsville for the Anglo Catholic service at St. Alban.

"This is a sad day, I'll miss it here, it's not fancy like the cathedral, but I like that."

The decision to close St. Luke's was made by the congregation Rev. Griffin says. The doors will be locked and the building looked after with a minimum level of maintenance. "It will not be sold," he says. Both the parish hall next door and the rectory will remain in use.

Rev. Peter Wall, rector of Christ's Church Cathedral, sees a future for St. Luke's. "We could use it for outreach in the neighbourhood, take out a few pews, serve coffee. There are possibilities. It's a beautiful church, we will not let it deteriorate."

There are decisions yet to come on what will be done with the church contents, which include one of the oldest organs in the city — deemed too fragile to move. It's been in continuous use since the building of St. Luke's, but may be older than the parish. In an article written for the Royal Canadian College of Organists, organist Bruce Cross, believes the organ could have been built in Hamilton in the 1850s, since sections of the Hamilton Gazette dated September 1853 were found glued to the interior.

After the Sunday service, one last mass was held at St. Luke's on Wednesday. For this the church was filled, parishioners lined the pews, along with clergy from other churches wearing beautiful vestments made by the late Pastor David Blackwood. Under the oiled pine ceiling and the stained glass windows, some original and some collected from other long-closed churches, the congregation listened to Right Rev. Michael Bird, Bishop of Niagara.

"Society has changed more in 50 years than the last 500," he said. "Good and faithful church people have faced a heartbreaking decision, letting go of a deeply-loved church building after 135 years of ministry."

A Letter of Disestablishment was read, and the church that began in the North End when steamers tied up to docks at the foot of James Street was no longer.

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There were tears, hugs and photos. Then the congregation filed out to a warm October night, perhaps thinking of final words from Rev. Griffin.

"I don't want us to disperse never to know each other again."