Former Long Island church to be sold for $11.8 million as two congregations merge

[Episcopal News Service] Two Episcopal congregations in the Diocese of Long Island began worshipping together this month through a merger that expects to benefit financially from the prospective sale of one of the two church properties for $11.8 million.

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, a historically Black congregation that was founded in 1902 in New York’s Queens borough, had spent decades discussing what to do about its aging church in the Jamaica neighborhood. “In recent years, the challenges of maintaining the property and sustaining the parish financially have become increasingly difficult,” the Rev. Frederick Walker, the congregation’s priest-in-charge, said last month in a diocesan article.

In March 2026, St. Stephen’s vestry voted to merge with St. Gabriel’s Episcopal Church in the nearby Hollis neighborhood, allowing both congregations to invest their resources in parish life and ministry together.

St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, a historically Black congregation in New York’s Queens borough, held its last service Sept. 6 before merging with a nearby congregation. Photo: Diocese of Long Island

The final service at St. Stephen’s occurred Sept. 6, and the congregations’ first joint worship was held at St. Gabriel’s on Sept. 13.

“What excites me is what becomes possible when we no longer have to devote so much energy and so many resources to maintaining aging buildings,” Walker said. “St. Stephen’s and St. Gabriel’s each have gifted, committed people, and together I believe they can build a vibrant ministry, strengthen their relationships in the community and flourish as one parish for years to come.”

The diocese has put the former St. Stephen’s property up for sale for $11,750,000. The corner .38-acre lot is located next to a public library branch and is zoned for commercial developments and multifamily housing.

The merged congregation intends to preserve spiritually and historically distinctive elements of the former St. Stephen’s, such as stained-glass windows and other furnishings, though the structure could be demolished in a redevelopment.  Proceeds from the sale would become “part of the resources of the merged parish,” according to the diocese.

“This is truly a merger, not simply the closing of one congregation,” Bishop Lawrence Provenzano said in a diocesan article, published before his successor, Bishop Adam Shoemaker, was consecrated as the new bishop of Long Island.

“The people of St. Stephen’s carry with them more than a century of faith, relationships and witness in Jamaica,” Provenzano said. “As they say farewell to a place that generations have called home, we give thanks for all that has been built there and look with hope toward what St. Stephen’s and St. Gabriel’s will build together.”

– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org.