The majority of Episcopal churches are small, with 70 percent of congregations having 150 or fewer in average Sunday attendance, according to annual parochial reports. More than a third of Episcopal churches have fewer than 50 people in the pews on any given Sunday.

In an effort to address the needs of small churches, the dioceses of East Tennessee, Tennessee and West Tennessee, with the School of Theology of the University of the South, Sewanee, have created the Center for Ministry in Small Churches.

The Center for Ministry in Small Churches will be a residential center located at Sewanee that provides "real life" experiences, for clergy and lay persons called to ministry in small churches, through study, action, reflection and evaluation, said Bishop Bertram Herlong of Tennessee. He serves on the center's board of directors, along with Bishops Robert Tharp of East Tennessee and James Coleman of West Tennessee.

Organizers of the center hosted a planning conference at DuBose Conference Center, near Sewanee, last November to gather input from the people the center hopes to help. The event drew 130 people from Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas.

"Part of our thesis is that we need to find new ways to do ministry in small churches," Bishop Herlong said. "So we invited people from those churches to come and help review what [the planning committee] had done and try to fill in the blanks to make this an institution that will in fact serve the church.

"[The center's] intent is to avoid failed and ineffective paradigms and programs and to seek new models of ministry that build on strengths, shared values and relationships."

Dennis Campbell, interim director, said the center will serve as a clearinghouse for other resources that support small churches. "We're serious about not reinventing the wheel," he said.

Those attending the planning event included people from "apostolic-sized" churches - 12 or fewer on Sunday - to "big" small churches with 100-150 people attending on Sunday.

In his keynote address, the Rev. Garret Keizer, author of The Dresser of Sycamore Trees, called small churches "treasures" because they "represent God's delight in small things" such as the mustard seed and the widow's mite.

"The small church bears testimony to the word of God that will accomplish its purposes with or without money, multitudes, human power or our permission. The small church is the recounting of the story of the whole church," he said.

Participants gathered in small groups to "brainstorm" their perfect small church. From those discussions, a profile of small Episcopal churches emerged. Many small churches cannot afford fulltime priests and are yoked with other congregations. Others manage with supply priests or deacons-in-training.

The uncertainty of not having a consistent clerical presence can be demoralizing to a congregation, one participant said.

"One of the difficulties I remember in our church was just having regular clergy. It was an adventure in liturgy every Sunday. People were so focused on what might happen next that it became a barrier to worship," said Dan Brown, a seminarian from the Diocese of Lexington.

Another obstacle for small churches is an inability to maintain their physical plants because of budget constraints. Deteriorating buildings and grounds place congregations in a "Catch-22" position of having to spend money they don't have to make their church buildings and grounds attractive to visitors, said the Rev. Mark Brown, rector of Church of the Nativity, Fort Oglethorpe, Ga.

Closely linked to the image of the church buildings and grounds is the image of the congregation. Because many small church congregations continually operate in a crisis mode, they may have a poor self-image which prevents them from setting and achieving goals.

"You can't plan for the future because you're fighting for survival today," said the Rev. Frank Sanders, a vocational deacon from Winchester, Tenn.

Participants said they often felt judged by larger churches and the diocese because of their small membership and budgets, and they felt left out of diocesan programs for the same reasons.

As the conversations continued, participants examined not only their problems but possible solutions as well. They stressed that small churches must become proactive in expressing their needs to the diocese and the national church.

"Small churches themselves have to articulate their vision, and I'm not just talking about a mission statement. If we expect the diocese and the national church to make that commitment to be proactive, then we have to articulate who we are, what we are and what we're doing," Dan Brown said.

Although many participants walked away with more questions than answers, they and the meeting organizers believe the exchange of information was beneficial. Data gathered from the small groups will be used to design future Center for Ministry in Small Churches programs.

"We're at the point we're still trying to bring [the data] down to earth," Mr. Campbell said. "We're hearing a lot of requests for on-site training and on-site consultations. From the responses, we know there is a real need out there and people are willing to make a commitment to it."