After nearly 130 years as one of the Near West Side’s richest landmarks, the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany is closing its doors.

The massive structure at 201 S. Ashland Ave. had a congregation that dwindled down to almost nothing. Only five to seven people were showing up every Sunday, and what few parishioners remained came to the decision in early November that it wasn’t sustainable to keep the building open.

With such a small group of parishioners, it was impossible to fill the coffers just to meet the basic needs of the church, according to one of the congregation’s leaders, Nikki Shields.

“While the Episcopal Diocese has been extraordinarily generous over the years, we’re faced with huge expenses just to keep the heating system up,” Shields said. “We’re going to disperse as a congregation and go our own ways.”

Indeed, in its last year, the church couldn’t even afford to keep a pastor in the church, and parted with its former leader, Rev. Meigan Cameron, in January. Instead, they went down the little-tried path of being a self-led congregation.

But it wasn’t to be. Shields said the recession had stopped the congregation’s recovery efforts in its tracks, and they couldn’t come back from that.

“When the economy turned down at the beginning of 2009, we lost some key people — people lost their jobs and moved out of the area,” Shields said. “When you’re not a very big congregation, that hurts you, and by the end of the year, we’d lost the momentum we’d gained.”

Jim Steen, the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago’s director of ministries, said they’ve given Epiphany close to $1 million in recent years to help keep the congregation afloat. But the increased needs of heating the church and the two buildings next to it were growing too great, and there was a serious risk of pipes freezing this winter without a significant investment.

“For as long as we can, we work with a congregation, trying to give them support to turn around and grow stronger,” Steen said. “They came to the conclusion that it was time to close. It happens not that often, but it does happen.”

The diocese now owns the building, and it will be easier to preserve without people using it.

“We’ll make sure it’s preserved and secure,” Steen said. “The biggest concern is about the possibility of flooding in the winter, so the first thing we’ll do is turn off all the water mains that go into the building.”

Beyond that, he’s not sure what the future of the church will be. Over the next few months, they’ll evaluate what options are on the table, he said — options that include selling it or moving another congregation into the building.

But there aren’t many congregations looking for a building of that size, Steen said, and any congregation moving into the building would still face a major task.

“The building would require a huge amount of work to be a place for another congregation,” Steen said. “You could worship in it, of course, but it would require a lot of upkeep.”

The final decision, he said, will be made based on what’s best for the diocese and the ministries, as well as what’s best for the neighborhood.

Neighborhood preservationist William Lavicka, who worked on restoring the church and many ornate old homes in the area known as the Jackson Boulevard Historic District, expressed dismay earlier this month that the church was closing.

Shields, one of the congregation’s leaders, said they understand that concern, but the writing was simply on the wall.

“I know there are people, Bill and others, who care deeply about the building and are angry,” Shields said. “But a church is not just a building; it’s a group of people, and five to seven people is just not viable.”

There is at least one outgrowth of the church that will remain a staple in the community: Cathedral Shelter, an outreach ministry founded by a father and son-in-law team who led the church in the mid-1900s. Though it had its roots in Greektown, it grew into a full-fledged dormitory operation next to Epiphany, providing care for the homeless, alcoholics and addicts in the late ’50s.

Cathedral Shelter’s executive director today, Jack Seymour, said that while they’re sad their mother church is leaving, they’ll continue to flourish. They’ve moved about a block away from the church, and they’re on their own path now.

“When Cathedral Shelter started to grow and moved, it started to do the outreach that Epiphany had done, but the church continued on its own trajectory,” Seymour said. “I know that the closing of the church itself is rather dramatic, but honestly, I don’t think it will affect us at all.”

What few parishioners remained at Epiphany were frequent volunteers at Cathedral Shelter, and Seymour said he still thinks they’ll come even though they’re not worshipping down the street.

“They’ll all go to another church, but that desire to help won’t end,” he said. “I’ll be honest, the Episcopal Church isn’t really leaving its mission on the Near West Side — it’s just leaving a great big building that wasn’t really designed to do what the mission is over here.”