St. Paul’s Parish Profile
INTRODUCTION
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, prayerfully seeks a full-time rector with a solid background in scripture and traditional liturgies, to serve a well-established parish in northcentral Pennsylvania. We value traditional Sunday worship together above all other group activities. What we like most about our congregation is our friendliness and open-mindedness. We are becoming known as the liberal church in Wellsboro, though on the scale of Episcopalian churches we’d fall in the middle of the spectrum.
Located right downtown and known locally as “the church on the Green,” St. Paul’s was the first organized church in Wellsboro, established in 1838. The present Romanesque stone structure was built in 1899 with stained glass windows and mosaic tile by Louis Comfort Tiffany. In 1917 Tiffany designed our Italian marble altar, making St. Paul’s one of the rare fully integrated Tiffany churches. We have a columbarium and carillonic tower bells. St. Paul’s has enjoyed more than 170 years of continuous worship, and the building is in very good condition.
OUR MISSION & MINISTRY
Our church is the backdrop of many community events on the Green, and we open our doors often during fairs and festivals. We offer Tiffany tours to locals and tourists, and part of our mission is to share this building and increase its use as a community resource. Our recent parish survey showed that the areas needing the most improvement are connecting with younger generations, evangelism, and building community. Most of the people who have recently joined St. Paul’s do not have an Episcopalian background, and increasing education about Episcopalian traditions and training in various church support roles is desired. We are looking to adapt and grow, incorporating new ideas, and looking for ways for the church to be seen and involved with current and new community endeavors. We have been attracting members disillusioned with their former church’s approach to marginalized populations, such as the LGBTQ+ community, those with substance use disorder, and special needs. Our services are safe spaces for those with special needs and their families to fully participate. Our goals include expanding our congregation and growing our volunteer base, reviving our Sunday school program, showing the love of Christ to Tioga County, remaining joyous, making a real difference, and creating a safe space in a world that’s scary.
GIFTS & MINISTRY OF THE CONGREGATION
We have an active altar guild and choir, with a rotating roster of ushers, lectors, tellers, and chalice bearers. The Thrift Store is an active outreach effort, and we enjoy fundraising dinners for the community, such as Shrove Pancake Supper and a Western-themed murder mystery dinner last summer. We have been a meeting place for Boy Scouts and would like to expand the use of our building, especially our kitchen and parish hall, for community events. Community choir concerts and the yearly Messiah Community Sing occur in our sanctuary. The Wellsboro Men’s Chorus holds social events and fundraisers in our parish hall. We support local food pantries and the homeless shelter. Our congregation as a whole shares the gift of hospitality and is looking for creative ways to share that gift with the community. Many newer members and attendees are active in the performing arts and interested in LGBTQ+ issues, and those gifts have not yet been tapped. We have acknowledged the need for us to reach beyond our walls, to those not yet known to us (physical presence in the community) and to those who cannot get to us. For the latter, we started a monthly e-newsletter and are open to other ways of developing an online presence, as well as continuing home communions and Eucharist minister training.
FINANCES
St. Paul’s income comes from traditional sources such as pledges, plate offerings and projects. Income from a professionally managed investment portfolio (endowment) contributes a significant amount of the total. The expense side of the budget contains all the required diocesan criteria for clergy compensation. St. Paul’s does not have a rectory and therefore provides a housing allowance based on the rector’s salary. The budget includes a line item for parish repairs with major projects financed through capital campaigns, with thanks to parishioners who have always generously contributed to projects like, recently, replacing the organ and restoring an altar column.
WELLSBORO
Founded in 1806 and the first settlement in the area, Wellsboro is the gateway to the Pennsylvania Wilds, the Tioga County seat, and a popular tourist destination. With all the benefits of a rural smalltown—where residents know each other, children walk to parks and friends’ houses unafraid for safety, and deer wander through town—Wellsboro offers cultural and recreational activities far beyond what would be expected in a town of 3,500.
We have a very active performing arts center with concerts, community theatre, choir programs for all ages, annual symphonic music festival, art gallery, and the historic Arcadia Theatre on Main Street, which has four screens and gets new releases. Ticket prices are much lower than in larger areas. Shops, restaurants, bars, and cafés are mostly locally owned and run, including homemade ice cream and gelato and a family-owned department store more than 100 years old. Our active Chamber of Commerce and community groups are behind successful events, such as Winter Weekends, PA State Laurel Festival, Tioga County Pride Day, Wellsboro Comic Con, Dickens of a Christmas, Christmas on Main Street, and First Fridays. We often complain there is too much going on over the weekend, and we can’t get to everything.
Our New England-style town has an old-fashioned Green, Victorian houses, many parks, and a rail trail that starts right here, passes through the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, and ends more than 60 miles south. Local outfitters provide rentals and guiding for rafting, paddling, cycling, rock climbing, and hiking shuttles. We have a town pool (currently under repair), tennis and pickleball courts, basketball courts, playgrounds, golf course, and ball fields, and our parks and rec agency offers afterschool and summer activities for all ages. Three state parks are 10-15 minutes away, there are several state game lands, and several lakes and rivers offer fishing all year. We know how lucky we are to live in this part of God’s creation.
Just north of us are the Finger Lakes, and between 60-90 minutes we can be sipping at some of the finest wineries or enjoying lakeside dining. The urban centers of Corning, NY, and Williamsport, PA, are within an hour’s drive, with Buffalo, New York City, Baltimore, Philly, and Toronto within four.
Wellsboro has a regional hospital affiliated with the UPMC system, and a clinical facility which is part of the Guthrie/Mayo Clinic organization.
Friendly and fun is how visitors describe our town. Wellsboro has a community of families and lots of retirees who are active volunteers and attend the school programs to cheer. We are in a conservative part of the state and our community reflects that, but in our volunteer organizations we all work together. Compared to the state average, our residents are more likely to have a degree in higher ed, and when people move here they stay much longer. Ethnically, we are not diverse, but there are a lot of other types of variety within the community, and St. Paul’s is committed to making sure everyone feels valued and loved.
GIFTS WE ARE LOOKING FOR IN A RECTOR
Our congregation is looking for a rector who is an inspiring and challenging preacher and teacher, who is friendly and will strive to attract new members, and who works side-by-side with us in parish activities. We enjoy sermons based in strong biblical knowledge and rooted in the Gospel lesson, applicable to everyday life (relatable), sprinkled with some humor and intellectual challenge. We value humility, open-mindedness, inclusivity, good listening skills, discretion, and conflict resolution experience. Our priority in the first year is for our new priest to become very familiar with us and the Wellsboro community. On that foundation we can build together a renewed vision for the church and our outreach.