All Souls Church and Community Center, which Archbishop Rowan Williams visited and blessed in 2007, will celebrate its final service on Jan. 8.
All Souls emerged from Episcopalians’ relief work in the Lower Ninth Ward amid the devastation that followed Hurricane Katrina. The church was based in a former Walgreens store at the corner of Flood Street and St. Claude Avenue in the heart of the Lower Ninth Ward.
The Rt. Rev. Morris K. Thompson, Jr., Bishop of Louisiana, announced the pending closure on Nov. 30.
“All Souls Episcopal Church and Community Center has struggled to cover its overhead costs, cultivate outside funding sources and sustain its ministries. During this period of time the diocese has also been involved in negotiations surrounding the lease agreement between Walgreens and the corporation that owns the property where All Souls is located,” Bishop Thompson wrote.
“Since the early days after Hurricane Katrina, the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana and Trinity Wall Street have partnered to sustain and support All Souls and its surrounding community. I am grateful for Trinity’s commitment to this ministry and while All Souls will no longer exist in its present form, I am working to ensure that its mission and legacy will live on.”
