A church in the heart of the city, with a heart for the city

Former Georgia church properties become hubs for outreach ministries, community activities

April 29, 2026

[Episcopal News Service] The Diocese of Georgia is finding new life for two repurposed church properties after the congregations that had worshiped there disbanded. One is now the diocesan headquarters. Last year, staff moved into the second floor of the parish hall at the former St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Savannah. The main space in the parish hall has become an active hub for community events, and an Episcopal worshiping community that had held services in secular spaces in the city has begun gathering regularly in the former church’s nave. And in Augusta, a building formerly occupied by Christ Episcopal Church until it closed in 2020 is now home to the Byllesby Center, a collection of community ministries overseen by the Rev. Larry Jesion, the center’s executive director. The center now offers regular community meals, hosts addiction and recovery groups, partners with a nearby elementary school on student supports and has launched a monthly dinner church service. “It’s basically giving us the opportunity to live into the Gospel every day,” Jesion told Episcopal News Service. Such examples come at a time when congregations and dioceses across The Episcopal Church are seeking ways to put their buildings and properties to greater use throughout the week, not just on Sunday mornings. Some also are studying ways of creating revenue streams from community uses of their properties. And for congregations that can no longer sustain themselves, tough decisions to close churches might offer opportunities for dioceses to engage with the community in new ways. “Part of our caring for all that has been entrusted to us means leasing or selling the property and reinvesting the proceeds in ministry elsewhere when a congregation decides to close,” Georgia Bishop Frank Logue said in a written statement to ENS. “But finding creative ways to continue to serve the community from that property is also worthy of consideration. In this way, we move from managing decline to imagining what resurrection and new life can look like.” Jesion has had a unique vantage point on the evolution of the property in Augusta where Christ Episcopal Church once worshiped. He was ordained to the diaconate there in 2013 and got to know its parishioners when it was still an active congregation. As a priest, he left to serve another church, but in late 2023, after returning to find the building empty, he began thinking of new possibilities. “I would love to open an outreach center,” he thought. Over the next year, he began turning that idea into a reality as the Byllesby Center, named for the late Deaconess Ruth Byllesby, who served Christ Episcopal Church from 1927 to 1943. In September 2024, the church property was among the few in Augusta that didn’t lose power in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, so the Byllesby Center offered residents meals and other support services as they worked to get back on their feet. Building on those outreach efforts, the center now offers breakfast four days a week and a community meal on Saturdays. Jesion also has invited nonprofits and community groups in the neighborhood to use the space. The partnership with Lamar-Milledge Elementary School includes an after-school program and homework assistance. The center also rents the sanctuary to a non-denominational church for use on Sunday mornings. The Byllesby Center’s own monthly dinner church service drew about 30 people when it launched in March. “We’re not trying to plant a church or re-establish Christ Church,” Jesion said, but the worship service gives residents another way to connect with the center. “Our ministry is to build community,” he said. Initial funding for the Byllesby Center comes from a fund established decades ago by its namesake deaconess’ family and from contributions by one of the Episcopal churches in the region. Jesion’s long-term operational goal is to establish the Byllesby Center as an independent nonprofit. The property at the former St. Michael and All Angels in Savannah is in the middle of its own transformation, since the diocese moved its headquarters into the former congregation’s building. After the former church closed by a vote of its vestry in July 2023, the diocese worked to maintain congregational ministries there that were serving more than 350 people. “We never wanted to disrupt the ministry that was already here and that was needed for this neighborhood,” Liz Willaims, the diocesan communications manager, told ENS. In 2024, the diocese sold another building that had housed its headquarters and said it would use some of the proceeds from the sale to support diocesan operations while relocating to St. Michael and All Angels. Since then, the diocese has expanded a food pantry at the site from one day a week to two. The former parish hall now hosts a range of community group meetings, from addiction support meetings to a dance class to sewing groups. A neighborhood karate class is among the newer activities on the property’s increasingly packed calendar. The former St. Michael and All Angels worship space was converted to a diocesan chapel, which hosted the ordinations of three new deacons recently. Wednesday and Sunday services are celebrated there by Episcopal Church of the Epiphany. The LGBTQ+-affirming congregation had started as a “church without walls” but now is offering its members the opportunity to worship in a traditional church space. The diocese may consider in the future offering some of the property as rentable event space, to add a new revenue source, though nonprofits and community groups are invited to schedule events there for free. The building is rarely quiet for long. “There’s usually a group here doing something, which is great,” Williams said. – David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.