It is always sad when a church closes. The final service in the Church is filled with tears and memories and when the doors close for the final time it seems like life will never be the same again. People have an attachment to their houses of worship regardless of their faith tradition. Many of the family memories, good and bad, revolve around the church building. But sometimes, churches do close.
The reasons a church closes are very complex. Sometimes the economic situation in the town changes, people move away, industry changes, and the church is a little slow in keeping up. Sometimes evangelism, or lack of evangelism, is the reason. I often ask the question, “how will they come and see if we do not go and tell.” We have a sacred obligation to evangelize people and it is something that we need to get better at.
In the video below, St. Andrew Romanian Orthodox Church from Indiana is featured. I should say the former St. Andrew Romanian Orthodox Church as the church is now closed. I am not sure of the date of the video but my guess would be the late 70’s or early 80’s. It would seem that language was one of the reasons the narrator of the video gives for the closing of the Church. I understand that could be one of the reasons, but my experience tells me there is never just one reason a church closes.
I hope this video serves as a wake up call and that we truly start to develop programs to evangelize our nation. America so desperately needs what Orthodoxy has to offer but, as the narrator says in the video, Orthodoxy is the best kept secret in America.
h/t OCL
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