The future of rural churches
Gallovidian
Shipmate
in Purgatory
Over coffee today, I had an interesting chat with two of our church elders - arising from comments on how empty the church was today because the minister is on holiday for 2 weeks, so the service was led by one of the elders.
Our minister is due to retire in 2 years time,
He currently has 2 parishes under his care, and is interim moderator for the neighbouring charge, where the minister died last year, after being incapacitated for some time previously. This additional responsibility is for 2 churches - there were originally three, but one never re-opened after Covid, and services alternate between the two. Fortunately, we have two very gifted elders who are authorised to preach and lead services (though one has just celebrated her 80th birthday).
The minister of the neighbouring 2 churches (again, was 3) is also due to retire about the same time.
Which potentially leaves 6 churches, covering an area around 60 square miles, without a minister.
Apart from the issue of pastoral care, what does the future hold for maintaining services in all (or even most) of these locations? With the average Sunday congregation across the six probably being around 30, is it really going to be feasible to maintain 6 services every Sunday? Or indeed justify the cost of maintaining 6 large old buildings? But if some (or most) of the churches were to close, how would the predominantly elderly regular worshippers be able to get to a service, in an area with minimal public transport?
I am sure this is a dilemma which will become increasingly pressing in many or our remote areas. Does anyone have any thoughts?
Our minister is due to retire in 2 years time,
He currently has 2 parishes under his care, and is interim moderator for the neighbouring charge, where the minister died last year, after being incapacitated for some time previously. This additional responsibility is for 2 churches - there were originally three, but one never re-opened after Covid, and services alternate between the two. Fortunately, we have two very gifted elders who are authorised to preach and lead services (though one has just celebrated her 80th birthday).
The minister of the neighbouring 2 churches (again, was 3) is also due to retire about the same time.
Which potentially leaves 6 churches, covering an area around 60 square miles, without a minister.
Apart from the issue of pastoral care, what does the future hold for maintaining services in all (or even most) of these locations? With the average Sunday congregation across the six probably being around 30, is it really going to be feasible to maintain 6 services every Sunday? Or indeed justify the cost of maintaining 6 large old buildings? But if some (or most) of the churches were to close, how would the predominantly elderly regular worshippers be able to get to a service, in an area with minimal public transport?
I am sure this is a dilemma which will become increasingly pressing in many or our remote areas. Does anyone have any thoughts?
Comments
I can only speak of England (I assume @Gallovidian that you're in Scotland), where rural churches are often struggling. The Guardian's Simon Jenkins has some fairly radical ideas - here's a recent article, mainly about the monarchy, but scroll down a bit to see what he says about churches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7huFaZ3tjpg
IIRC, we've discussed this fairly recently, though maybe not on this particular board.
There are increasing numbers of *festival churches*, open only on special occasions, but the question of who pays for their upkeep is a vexed one.
If there are groups of people ready and willing to look after churches, pray for and look after the spiritual welfare of the people of the parishes they are in, all well and good. It has been interesting to observe how God does call people to lead worship when there are people ready to worship - perhaps not communion every week, but that may be a good thing.
If there are currently not enough people to do the above, it might be a good thing to make them ‘festival churches’ for the time being, until such time as there is.
What I think would be a tragedy is if they were sold off, or sucked dry by a multi-parish system which took the last of its resources for use elsewhere.
Or they became private dwellings (happened here with many of the buildings put up by the dissenters) or, further back, were demolished and the stone repurposed. We have many surviving buildings and romantic ruins but a lot are simply gone.
Around 20 years ago a few of them received a boost as they became rural Zoars welcoming refugees from town churches which were replacing choirs with worship bands.
They are all turning into pillars of salt.
Seriously, though, the future's not looking rosy for rural and urban churches alike here in the UK.
A good few years ago now I read that 60% of churchgoers under 25 were concentrated in the Greater London area. If true, it meant that the rest were spread very thinly over the rest of the country.
Some 40% of a large-ish charismatic evangelical church I know of in the Midlands were not born in the UK. Nothing wrong with that, of course but I get the impression that city churches are increasingly made up of migrants.
Rural churches are closing at an alarming rate. In Wales non-conformist chapels are closing like there's no tomorrow.
There is no tomorrow.
Why not?
Or a lay minister, of the right calibre?
The congregation I am now working with may join forces with another rural Methodist congregation whose pastor just resigned.
Only one of the congregations has remained independent. It ended up disaffiliating from the ELCA so I resigned that position. Not sure what is happening there. Last spring I went by that congregation, and it appeared to have a full parking lot.
This past month, my wife informed me another rural congregation nearby can no longer afford its part time minister. The bishop's office has yet to ask me to fill in there so I don't know what the plans will be for it. As I look at that community, there is either a Methodist or a Presbyterian congregation they can unite with.
It is about the only way I can see rural churches surviving or continuing to minister to their communities, by merging with other rural congregations.
To be frank, I even see the national ELCA church body having to merge with another denomination of like mind. We are close to the Episcopal church in many ways--our local Lutheran synod actually rents office space and shares staff with the Spokane Episcopal diocese. Time will tell.
My parish is one of nine churches in this province served by two supply priests, who drive long distances over mountain passes to say Mass after Mass at each church on Sunday. Like many rural churches, the shortage of priests has affected us badly. Most of those ordained here are sent over to supply for diocesan needs in Europe or the United States.
It’s a small church and usually crowded despite the poor acoustics and draughtiness. It stands on the outskirts of an agricultural town and faces into gale-force winds. The architectural shortcomings of the church came about because it was built in the 1970s during the era of what was called 'Roomsegevaar' (the Roman peril, or threat posed by Rome to the Protestant state, along with Swartgevaar, the so-called black peril, or Kommunisgevaar, the Communist threat), and many country towns refused permission for any Roman Catholic churches or institutions to be erected in their municipalities. To get building permission, the parish council had to comply with local prejudices: no church hall or manse allowed; no spires or steeples or signage; the church itself could not be built on the main road, had to face away from the town (hence the draughty entrance); and the church itself could only be built in the Black location, away from then-white suburbs. The building materials were cheap and substandard so the roof leaks in winter, there's too much unpainted concrete and varnished pine, windows don't close properly.
Just for background, anti-Catholic prejudice in South Africa increased after 1948 with the implementation of apartheid and threat to Catholic mission schools as racially segregated education became law. In 1953, under the leadership of Archbishop Denis Hurley, the Catholic Bishops Conference declared apartheid a heresy and government opposition hardened. In the Western Cape, security police surveillance and harassment of Mass-goers was intense in early years and younger activists were imprisoned. That history is still part of the community’s determination to keep the church going in the absence of priests and worsening poverty and unemployment. Because there are limited government subsidies or social services, most informal feeding schemes are done by churches here along with adult literacy workshops and support for those affected by gender-based violence. Catholic identity is strong, with many refugees from Mozambique, Angola, the DRC along with Chinese shop owners and arrivals from eastern Europe. Many self-identified 'lapsed Catholics' in the town still help with educational funding and youth programmes.
On churches/communities/denominations ..... they seem to have a natural life span. I am for accepting that and for finding ways of mitigating the hurt caused to remaining remnants. The trouble is that institutional structures are still based on how things were two centuries ago.
That's interesting @Alan29, I would have thought it was common knowledge, but obviously my corner of the world remains quite obscure.
And South African white-minority distrust of Catholics came as a surprise to me when I came down to study in the Cape because the Zimbabwean Catholic Church was so large, vital and everywhere. There had been ongoing strife with the Smith regime in then-Rhodesia but the government could not have suppressed or banned the Church, they could only deport troublesome priests and nuns.
Of course, Catholicism has a much longer history in Zimbabwe than in Calvinist South Africa and dates back to the Portuguese Jesuit missionary, Fr Gonçalo da Silveira, who worked to convert Shona people at the court of the Monomotapa dynasty until he was martyred in 1561. He had been influenced by the travels of St Francois Xavier, had served with Ignatius of Loyola in Goa and attributed the conversions among the Shona to the intercession of the Virgin Mary. Mariology is still very influential in Zimbabwe and Catholic schools are among the most popular and successful in Africa.
Then too, Vatican II reforms were introduced in Zimbabwe much earlier than in the United States. Taking communion in the hand has been official practice since 1971. Some of the older Irish missionaries still followed earlier communion practices at remote outstations, but the Jesuits at Chishawasha who had worked in the country since 1877 and the more progressive Dominicans in the Eastern Highlands adopted Vatican II changes from the mid-'60s onward.
What was more divisive was inculturation and that involved adoption of the kurova guva ritual as an official Catholic rite in 1982. This was an indigenous Shona rite performed to welcome the spirit of the deceased into the family as a spirit elder, and to induct it into the community of the spirit ancestors. Again, for older clergy, this was an uneasy mix of cultural traditions; as a younger Shona and Ndebele priesthood replaced the older foreign missionaries, the rite became more familiar and accepted.
One of these days I anticipate seeing a newly elected conservative African pope hailing from Kadoma or Harare who will have nothing positive to say about same-sex anything or women priests but who will wax lyrical about polygamy and honouring the ancestors. One of our Zimbabwean archbishops said last year that his motto is "to please God but placate the ancestors," which would go down like a bombshell in any Vatican communique!
The other four get one HC per month. Any other services may be lay-led ie by Church Wardens, though our priest finds many reasons to hold special services eg Plough Sunday, which she enthusiastically leads.
If there is a fifth Sunday, there is just one service in one of the churches, but it is not well attended. Most people just attend their own church, though they are perfectly capable of driving to shops, schools, doctors etc in other villages.
There is very much a feeling that the Diocese is over-staffed with a focus on the more populated city and towns, and church plants. This scenario will I am sure be replicated across the country( England), with probably more than five churches to cover. I don’t see it being sustainable for much longer.
There was always Sunday Mass in the main church with the outlying communities having Mass on a rota basis, with communion from the reserved sacrament on the other Sundays. All came together for major celebrations. Strong and plentiful lay leadership was involved. By chance we were there for the parishes first holy communion Mass. They came from all the churches, the place was packed and it had obviously been prepared by the various lay leaders with superb care.
Those huge rural area parishes are found right across France. It seems to work for them thanks to the finacial input from the government for the upkeep of the buildings.
I fear the likes of Cardinal Sarah getting elected, but I think Francis has now appointed so many like-minded cardinals that it is unlikely.
Here, here!
The congregation is not only expected to adhere to all kinds of restrictions, but to pay to maintain it as instructed (even though it would be far better to use modern materials, cheaper and more environmentally friendly).
With the cost of maintenance and payments to the institution it is not a surprise that congregations give up.
The burden on priests to manage, and to provide statistics, admin etc to the institution can easily take them away from God’s calling to care and pray for the people of the parish. They need to be freed up from it.
In my observation, some lay people are called to preside at the Eucharist. It may be counter-productive to insist on weekly Holy Communion in any case. There are some who are either not ready or not willing to receive it, and it excludes other methods of worship which might attract new people to the church.
How frustrating and life-sapping, if you are mission-minded, to find yourself devoting the totality of your time, energy and money maintaining a building that doesn't even suit today's needs!
You are on the button, @Baptist Trainfan
Volunteers for coffee mornings etc to raise a little toward the never-ending money pit are ever harder to find.
Call me a heretic, but I have long held that the Eucharist is not some occult magical rite which only an elite band of inductees can successfully perform. I would happily accept some kind of local 'eldership' of mature congregational leaders able to officiate - as happens in some non-conformist settings. If we are to move perhaps to more home-based meetings for worship, then it might make some sense (and perhaps sit more comfortably with New Testament practice) for the head of that household to represent Christ at His Table.
I currently worship with a Church of Scotland congregation, where communion only happens perhaps twice a year - I hanker for something more regular, but not necessarily weekly.
Very true. Our Place's regular monthly Community Cafe/Jumble Sale may have to be cancelled next month, as some of The Usual Suspects Helpers are away - and yet every weekend brings another plea from FatherInCharge for £££ to pay the ever-increasing bills.
(To be fair, Our Place is not in debt, but money is always tight, and I do sometimes wonder if trying to heat a huge barn in winter, for a congregation of 25, is worth it. The Hall is heated separately, and is usually reasonably comfortable (it's used by a pre-school Nursery during the week), so why not have the Sunday Mass in the Hall during cold periods? The daily Mass could be held in the vestry/sacristy (also separately heated) for the 2 or 3 Faithful Few...)
I don't know what the solution to this may be, or even if there is a solution. A good deal of retrenchment is required, and has, as we know, been going on for many years in any case.
(Missed edit window) A question put to students at my theological college. You're a Baptist church. It's a Communion Sunday. The Minister phones in sick. In this case, do you (a) cancel the Communion, (b) phone round other Ministers (who you don't know) to see if any of them are free to preside; or (c) ask a well-respected lay Deacon or Elder from the congregation to preside? The Baptist answer would be (c).
I need to put this carefully, but the average *white British families* - I hope you see what I mean - are conspicuous by their absence, except in a number of cases of grandparents bringing their grandchildren to church from time to time. Our other regularly-attending younger people are Indian students, a Chinese/Italian family, a Nigerian family, and a Filipina/Trinidadian family (!).
There again, the demographics of many rural areas these days are such that it's *only* the older people who attend church - but the 10 or so who do turn up on a Sunday may well represent 10% of the local population, which might well not have any younger members!
It may be that, as the older people move away (or die) they will be replaced by other older people moving into the area. However, that's no guarantee that the newcomers will be interested in the church, given that *new pensioners* these days may have been born in the 1960s, just as the very steep decline in churchgoing began...
This has caused extra burdens on rural congregations, lots of deferred maintenance issues.
https://www.visitchurches.org.uk/faqs.html
AIUI, this is a charity which is sponsored by the C of E, but not actually part of it.
There are what might be called independent conservation trusts - I can think of one in our neighbouring diocese - which may have only one or two churches in their care, but which nevertheless continue to maintain them, and keep them open for visitors and the occasional service.
I've mentioned *festival churches*, which, again, is a C of E thing:
https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/diocesan-resources/strategic-planning-church-buildings/festival-churches
Finance might be a problem, although community groups might help, or the church's patron - perhaps a wealthy landowning family - but I guess there would still need to be some hard work on the part of anyone interested in keeping the church upright and useable, even if not for regular worship.
There are lots of possibilities, but I'm not sure where all this leaves the chapels and churches of other denominations which find themselves no longer needed...
I can't find their website at the moment, though...
However - my question was in response to Gramps, and I was asking about the USA.
If this is the case I can't see how it should be beyond the wit of man (or woman) for the CofE or any other ostensibly sacramental-ish/ist church to do likewise.
The Baptist arrangement makes perfect sense of course within the context of baptistic polity and ecclesiology.
Even if one doesn't adopt that - as clearly the Greek Orthodox haven't - then it strikes me that there are other ways of doing it whilst maintaining a sacramental approach should one see the need to do so.
Or am I being naive?
The bigger issue though, it seems to me, is the growing indifference and secularisation of society and that affects all of us whether we are Baptist, Anglican, Catholic, Salvation Army or whatever else.
Thanks - I didn't realise that you meant the USA.
Indeed.
ISTM that people are not indifferent as much as anti-‘religion’, having taken on board the urban myths re: cause of wars, after your money, holier-than-thou attitude, ‘if God could he should..’ etc
Ignorance of the Christian religion hasn’t helped, withe generations of schools preferring to teach more about other religions and assuming a cultural knowledge which didn’t exist.
If people in the churches are spending more time and energy on keeping buildings going than sharing the good news and the love of Christ, they are not seeing the other side.
Well, perhaps. IME, people simply don't see that Christianity is in any way relevant to them, and to the problems and challenges they face on a daily basis. Any talk of *good news and the love of Christ* is simply meaningless to many, although (in all fairness) there are lots of churches which show that love in various practical ways - but Sikhs, Hindus, Moslems etc. etc. do the same thing...
Yes.
Speaking of myths, schools teach Christianity as a religion the same way as all other religions are taught.
Passing on the faith in a confessional sense is not their job.
I'm far from convinced that the "myths" you mention are indeed myths. While "religion causes wars" is simplistic, it's also not exactly wrong. It's a bit more complicated than that.
As for "if God could... he should..." I'm guessing you're talking about the well worn dilemma of God’s supposed loving nature and supposed omnipotence. Writing it off as a myth is frankly insulting. I feel insulted and I'm trying my damnedest to be on the Christianity "side". It cannot be simply handwaved.
God knew that poor two year old found next to his dead father the other day was slowly starving to death. He did nothing about it. Nothing effective at any rate. That sort of problem cannot be handwaved away as if one is stupid for even raising it.
If people are saying these things and they're not satisfied by your answers, that's not the schools' fault, and it's not their fault either.
If anyone were to ask me what I thought God/god/gods should have done about it, I would have no idea how to answer.
This is the sort of thing - and one could list simply oodles of similar Stuff - which makes *religion* seem irrelevant and useless to so many. The fact that such Stuff has always existed is neither here nor there - the solution is as incomprehensible as ever.
In a way, I'm slightly amazed that any church - whether rural or not - still has a congregation, however small it may be...
https://www.thepoetryhour.com/poems/church-going
Was Larkin right in his prognostications? Perhaps not yet...
Can't be doing with individual glasses or Ribena lol