“Many of these are Gothic structures that are expensive to maintain,” he says. “It’s not just your standard cinderblock.”

When immigrants flowed into Connecticut’s cities in the 19th century, their homes might have been modest, their jobs working-class. But they brought with them visions of the grand Gothic cathedrals of their childhoods. Collecting pennies and nickels from parishioners and congregants, they built edifices that rivaled Europe’s grandest altars of worship.

Then they moved to the suburbs.

Or, in the case of the Episcopal Church in the United States, affected by defections of some parishioners upset over the acceptance of homosexuals in the clergy, they just met elsewhere.

Congregations were diminished and the contributions necessary to keep those grand houses of worship warm, clean, dry and landscaped dwindled. From the end of the 20th century into the 21st, scores of churches went up for sale nationwide.

A typical house is tough enough to sell in a recession-hampered housing market. But when a house is a house of worship, the job often becomes one that smacks of the Biblical trials of Job. The challenges just seem to multiply.

Take the case of Trinity Episcopal Church, an imposing, steepled stone structure boasting elaborate stained glass windows that was a longtime center of worship in Bristol. It fell victim to the split in the church and was put up for sale for $850,000.

“It needs some work,” says Jack Spaeth, the canon for stewardship and administration for the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut. “But the right buyer is out there, whether that is a faith community or a transformed use.”

Spaeth knows of which he speaks; a former real estate agent who manages property and finances for the diocese, he has handled several church sales in the past few years. “Many of these are Gothic structures that are expensive to maintain,” he says. “It’s not just your standard cinderblock.”

Spaeth rattles off a number of recent sales: All Saints Episcopal in Meriden sold to a Pentecostal religious group, as did Calvary Episcopal Church in Bridgeport. Emmanuel Episcopal in Stamford sold to a Haitian faith community that once held their services at Emmanuel Episcopal in the afternoons, after the Episcopal congregation had finished their morning worship.