AMHERST
Calvary using Episcopal church space
Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church has had four homes since its founding in Buffalo in 1891, and members hope to get a fifth.
In the meantime, the small congregation has been welcomed by another Protestant church in Amherst.
For the past year or so, All Saints Episcopal Church at 781 Maple Road has been sharing its space with Calvary in a mutually beneficial arrangement that both churches say has gone smoothly.
“We firmly believe we’re all God’s children, and where we can provide for one another we should do that,” said the Rev. Karen Hardy, vicar of All Saints.
All Saints moved back one of its Sunday morning worship services by a half-hour to accommodate Calvary’s interest in an 11 a. m. service.
“It’s another opportunity for us to get good use out of the building,” said Hardy.
The church also rents hall space to groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and a pilates training organization.
All Saints, which also is a small congregation of about 50 members, receives a $1,000 monthly “donation” from Calvary in the open-ended arrangement. The money helps cover rising expenses.
Calvary sold its Amherst church building at 4110 Bailey Ave., where the congregation had been since 1959, after it became too expensive to maintain. The Town of Amherst bought it in 2006 for $530,000 and is converting the space into the Eggertsville Youth and Community Center.
“The location needed the kind of repairs, especially with the roof, that we could not provide,” said Pastor Karl E. Schmidt.
The congregation has been without a permanent home since, and prior to linking up with All Saints had spent time worshipping in St. James Lutheran Church in Amherst and in the Buffalo Niagara Marriott hotel.
The congregation is planning to move into a new site of their own, preferably in Amherst, although it does not know when.
