Posted on 12/07/2018 8:54:49 AM PST by Salvation
Lincoln Congregational Temple in Shaw, credit: NCinDC, Flickr
As I walk or drive through my Capitol Hill neighborhood here in Washington, D.C., I pass by more than twenty churches (all of them Protestant) that have been closed in the past decade. Many of them are grand and prominent buildings. (Click here to see four of them.) Most of the them have been converted to condominiums, likely due to historic preservation norms that seek to retain the exterior appearance of historic buildings.
A recent study by the local non-profit organization Sacred Spaces Conservancy confirms my anecdotal evidence about the large number of closures. On Capitol Hill, a growing neighborhood with a tremendous number of row houses, about 40 percent of buildings used for worship have closed [*]. Such a figure is shocking and demonstrates a collapse of religious observance. Our Catholic parishes have suffered as well, but thankfully none of them have closed.
As always, there is important detail behind the numbers. At the root is a dramatic demographic shift in the population of the District of Columbia. The once majority-black city is no longer so; African-Americans now make up less than 50 percent of the population. The new arrivals to the city are also younger. To say that the city is undergoing gentrification is not really accurate. The majority of the new residents are not gentry at all; they are largely young adults, saddled with college debt and unable to afford to own property. The median home price in this area is close to one million dollars. Because most of them do not have the means to buy a home, they rent, and even then must usually share with others to make it affordable.
This is the new demographic reality: A once solidly African-American area is now more racially diverse and younger as well. The new residents are in general less religiously observant and those who are “religious” are less tied to particular denominations or congregations. This is a challenge to institutions established in a very different world.
This has affected Protestant and Catholics in different ways.
The Protestant Experience:
There are reasons that the Protestant congregations have been more affected by the changes than the Catholic parishes. In general, Protestant denominations were and are divided in that they served specific groups defined by both racial and sectarian lines. For example, there might have been ten “Baptist” churches in a fairly small area, but they weren’t serving just different Baptist denominations; there were White Baptists, Black Baptists, Primitive Baptists, Free Will Baptists, and so forth. Add to this a slew of other denominations and distinctions such as African Methodist Episcopal, Evangelical Lutheran, Missouri Synod Lutheran, High Church Episcopal, Low Church Episcopal, and Broad Church Episcopal. The city churches were built during a time when these distinctions mattered.
However, it is the racial focus of Protestant churches that looms largest of all in this city. Dr. Martin Luther King once observed that the most segregated day of the week is Sunday. This still rings largely true. It wasn’t just race, it was the length of the service and styles of worship, preaching, and music. Black churches in solidly black neighborhoods could flourish in many varieties from storefront churches to megachurches to historical “anchor” churches such as Metropolitan Baptist and Foundry United Methodist. African-American congregations that identify strongly with black traditions of worship have not adjusted easily to the demographic shifts of recent years. Thus, they face the choice of either moving to where their congregants have moved or closing. It isn’t just “inflexible” niche marketing that is the problem; whites who move in are not easily persuaded to attend their services. Whether it is liturgical style, preaching content, or just the “awkward” experience of being a minority, whites and other non-African-American arrivals don’t join in large enough numbers to shore up a declining congregation.
In short, the combination of changing demographics and denominational division has spelled disaster for many traditionally black congregations. Some of them have moved to the suburbs; others have closed. Focusing on a niche market is a problem when the niche disappears or moves away.
As for the mainline (largely white) Protestant churches, I would argue that a collapse of faith has depleted them, at least collectively. Many of them ceased preaching the “old time religion” a long time ago, having largely assimilated to a post-Christian world and acclimated to the sexual revolution. Gone are the moral demands of the gospel, which have been replaced by a social “gospel.” Gone is the drama of salvation. Jesus is less Lord and Savior and more a good man and ethical teacher. For those who think the Catholic Church should chart a similar course, please note that as much as we have declined, the mainline Protestant churches have collectively seen an utter collapse in attendance [**].
The Catholic experience:
The experience of the Catholic parishes on Capitol Hill has not been ideal, but it is better, and we can survive collectively. There are reasons for this.
Our first commitment is generally to serve a neighborhood or region. In a certain sense, the whole world is divided up into parishes. Every diocesan parish has a boundary. Boundaries used to tell Catholics where they should attend Mass. Today, boundaries tell the Church where we are supposed to go. A parish is responsible for every person who lives within its boundaries. Thus, with few exceptions, the parish stays put whether its founding parishioners remain or move away. Although there are a few ethnic parishes here and there (mainly due to language and/or a special rite) that aim to serve only a particular group, this sort of “niche marketing” is generally frowned upon.
The Catholic Church is catholic (universal). My own parish has gone from a solidly African-American parish to one that is more than 40 percent non-African-American. In this, it is beginning to reflect the current makeup of the neighborhood, which is more racially diverse and much younger than it was. Noting this, we did a very Catholic thing. Although the changes brought stress, we went out to meet our neighbors. We knocked on doors; we talked to them in the park and at the local market. Over time we’ve adjusted to their needs; at their request we began an evening Mass that has become quite popular (it seems that younger people tend to be night owls). We still have our longer, vibrant Gospel Mass for the benefit of our traditional parishioners, some of whom have stayed in the neighborhood and others who have moved away but continue to attend Mass here on Sundays. This has been the second big sea-change in this parish and neighborhood. (The first one took place after World War II, when the neighborhood became solidly black.) Through it all, our parish stays and cares for whoever lives here.
That said, things are not nearly as good or strong as they should be in the Catholic Parishes of Capitol Hill. Not one of them has more than 1000 people in attendance on Sunday. The largest has just under 900; mine has 600; two of them have fewer than 200. Several of our schools have closed. Part of the reason for the smaller number of parishioners is that all these parishes were built before the advent of the automobile and thus are much closer to one another than is true in the suburbs. People in my neighborhood have three Catholic parishes within walking distance, with Masses offered at all sorts of different times, lowering the number in any one parish.
Yet, truth be told, all our Capitol Hill parishes were once much fuller. The parish schools were bursting with children and our rectories and convents were brimming. To some degree, the fact that all our parishes are still open is based on inertia from prior times. We were bigger than the Protestant congregations to begin with and so it’s taken longer to erode. The danger is that we are parking on someone else’s dime; the fuel that those of the past left us is dwindling to mere fumes. The generation that built our parish churches was poorer than we are in a monetary sense but seemingly richer in faith. There was a time when more than 80 percent of Catholics went to Mass weekly. Today it’s only about 20 percent and the figure has been dropping by the year. The current scandal has surely not helped, but the problem is deeper, older, and wider than that. Despite the steep drop in attendance, it has often been “business as usual”; our focus seems to be institutional more so than Christological or eschatological.
The problem is not a local one in Capitol Hill. This steep decline has occurred throughout the Western world. A secular world has, by definition, a worldly focus and little time or thought for God. The Catholic Church has not always responded well to this.
There isn’t the time to set up a complete scheme for evangelization, but as most of you who read here know, I think accommodation/watering down of the faith is precisely the wrong path. We must shine brightly in a world of increasing darkness. As Catholics and Catholic parishes, we are called to love everyone, but we must love them enough to tell them the truth. A fiery love for Christ that holds Him in awe and deeply respects His teachings must be combined with a true love for souls such that we strive to save them rather than merely pleasing them.
In a neighborhood with an increasing population, no church that was once full should close. We cannot simply blame demographics for decreasing numbers of parishioners. If every parishioner found one convert or returnee, the parish would double in size. Is that really so hard? What percentage of our parishioners can say they have ever gotten even one person to return to Church and the sacraments? Blaming demographics is a convenient excuse.
If secularism has swept in, we cannot simply lament it; we must accept the responsibility that it has happened on our watch. We must meet the challenge with fortitude and with the knowledge that the Lord built a worldwide Church with a cadre of leaders who hardly looked promising. He did it against all odds. He asks that we bring our five loaves and two fishes and promises to multiply the harvest of holiness and the numbers as well. His graces are not exhausted, and His mercies are not withheld if we but ask and act.
What are your five loaves and two fishes? What are your parish’s five loaves and two fishes? Not one Catholic parish should close in a neighborhood where people still live. Even if the “old-timers” have moved on, there is still a harvest of human beings to bring in. The harvest is plentiful, so ask the Lord of the harvest, “Lord, who is that one person in my family or among my friends to whom you are sending me? Show me, Lord, and I will go to work.”
Sadly, you are correct. I lived in Southern California for seven years and many laudable things about Mexican Americans are destroyed within a generation. The Dems get their hooks in the Mexicans and welfare destroys the family unit and the work ethic — both of which are strong among most legal and illegal Mexicans when they first arrive in the USA. Once the family and the work ethic are gone, their allegiance to the Catholic Church also goes — or may as well go because the Mexican Americans who remain Catholic become just another group the Catholic bishops use to justify bleeding the rest of us - in the Church and via taxes.
Ping!
Yup. Heard the same thing living in rural Northwest Ohio where many Mexicans had settled.
Immigrants themselves were hard-working, decent, traditional Catholic family people. First generation discovered there was this thing called welfare where the government pays you not to work (and even more to produce babies out of wedlock), and it’s all out the window.
Catholic Answers, the #1 apologetics site, hosts a daily radio call in show. Sometimes the program is focused on a theme but last night was an Open Forum, open to anyone from any faith, to call in with questions. CA has some of the top apologists like Jimmy Akin, Trent Horn, Fr. Trigilio, etc. and some of them are converts to the Catholic Church, having read themselves in via the Early Church Fathers. Last night, a young man named Hunter called in. He is a self professed atheist who is considering joining the Catholic Church. The reason he gives is ... the resurrection. As he explained, if this is true, then christianity is true. You can hear his question here.
This is not the first time I have heard such testimonies on that program. As you may recall, Mother Angelica established the first Catholic radio transmitter in the US. This program reaches many people across the US. New ministries, like street evangelization, have sprung up, as a result.
While the OVERALL picture, from our perspective, may seem bleak, listening to the callers to CA's daily radio program, provides insight into how God works in the hearts of souls. I recall one caller who recounted how he rented a car, turned on the radio and it was tuned to the CA program. He listened during the ride, got hooked and continued to listen after his return home. He is now enrolled in RCIA.
I’ve never listened to the program but I would browse their forums occasionally. Now that the board is unreadable, no more.
It didn't.....there is no corrupt ecclesiastical hierarchy at all....there are some few corrupt members in the hierarchy but you can't condemn all for the sins of a few. There are just as many, or more protestant clergy involved in scandal, but because the protestant parishes are largely independent of one another, there isn't the scandal involved....The Catholics, on the other hand, are all connected through their diocesan association.
Oh please....the "Fred Smith" decides to start a church movement is weird at best....we have several in our town and they are ALL strange at best...get back to the Catholic church ASAP
If that's the best apologetics site for Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholicism is in serious trouble.
It’s and “or” statement; not an “and” statement!
You mean...like those churches Paul started back in the day??
You must not be reading all the daily posts from one of your fellow Roman Catholics or you're head is in the sand.
Hasn't that been the role of the clerics in Roman Catholicism over time though?
7. Professional Catholics. For so long everything in the Catholic Church was done by the “professionals.” Priests, bishops, sisters and brothers were the ones who ran the parishes, dioceses, schools and colleges. They were the ones who were trained to do all the “church work.” Lay people were there to pray, pay and obey — or not. But this clericalism still dogs the Church. The people in the pew don’t take ownership and don’t feel it is their job to evangelize.
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/longenecker/10-reasons-why-catholics-dont-evangelize
Well, when Roman Catholicism has elevated their "Sacred Tradition" to be equal to and in many cases superior to the Bible one can understand why.
Plus, encouraging Roman Catholics to actually read the very book they claim to have given everyone is a relatively new idea only gaining support in the 1940s.
I like Catholic Answers but also like Call to Communion where Dr. David Anders answers the questions of non-Catholic. He does a lot of explaining, often citing Scripture, Early Church Fathers, the Catechism, saints, etc.
Good to see you, friend!
That’s a really twisted analysis. I don’t have time to discuss everything said here, but first, there are Bible-believing Protestant denominations and those that are Bible-rejecting. The rejecting ones are heretical denominations that grow worse and worse and their adherents prefer self-deception and thinking they’re destroying the Christian faith from within. There are people like Rob Bell and Rick Warren, but their leadership is examined in the light of Scripture. When Rob Bell rejected the Bible, he excommunicated himself from Bible-believing churches. Rick Warren is similarly regarded by many evangelicals as a globalist, secular humanist, opportunist “pastor.” Meanwhile, those sorts of people simply stay in the Roman Catholic Church and when in leadership, promote each other.
Then you look at predominantly Catholic heritage areas of this country, and they’re usually very racially segregated. White Catholics so often want their “brotherly love” towards African-Americans, who are mostly Protestant, to be at a considerable distance.
**That’s a really twisted analysis. I don’t have time to discuss everything said here, but first, there are Bible-believing Protestant denominations and those that are Bible-rejecting. The rejecting ones are heretical denominations that grow worse and worse and their adherents prefer self-deception and thinking they’re destroying the Christian faith from within. There are people like Rob Bell and Rick Warren, but their leadership is examined in the light of Scripture. When Rob Bell rejected the Bible, he excommunicated himself from Bible-believing churches. Rick Warren is similarly regarded by many evangelicals as a globalist, secular humanist, opportunist “pastor.” Meanwhile, those sorts of people simply stay in the Roman Catholic Church and when in leadership, promote each other.**
Thank you for your honesty.
I pass by more than twenty churches (all of them Protestant) that have been closed in the past decade.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
Actually, this description much apples to the Western RC church, whose members testify to being more liberal than conservative (and her Bible scholarship much reflects that), in contrast to "fundamentalist," "Bible Christians ," and it is no surprise that the declining mainstream churches tend to be those closest to Rome.
The experience of the Catholic parishes on Capitol Hill has not been ideal, but it is better, and we can survive collectively. There are reasons for this.
#1. We do not like to admit we are losing many members, or that we count even very liberal public figures as members in life and in death. And contrary to what pope conveys, the number of RCs has decreased substantially in the West.
#2. We have more money to keep RC churches open.
#3.
The drop in the Christian share of the population has been driven mainly by declines among mainline Protestants (7.8% decline from 2007 to 2017) and Catholics (3.1% decline from 2007 to 2017). Each of those large religious traditions has shrunk by approximately three percentage points since 2007. The evangelical Protestant share of the U.S. population also has dipped (0.9), but at a slower rate, falling by about one percentage point since 2007. (unaffiliated grew 6.7%)
The new survey indicates that churches in the evangelical Protestant tradition – including the Southern Baptist Convention, the Assemblies of God, Churches of Christ, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the Presbyterian Church in America, other evangelical denominations and many nondenominational congregations – now have a total of about 62 million adult adherents. That is an increase of roughly 2 million since 2007, though once the margins of error are taken into account, it is possible that the number of evangelicals may have risen by as many as 5 million or remained essentially unchanged - http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/
In 1988, there were 19,705 parishes in the U.S., while there are now 17,483, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University.
The current number of parishes is about equal to the number that existed in 1965, even as the number of self-identified U.S. Catholics has risen in the past half-century, from 48.5 million to 76.7 million between 1965 and 2014, according to CARA’s data. However, the share of U.S. Catholics who reported attending Mass at least weekly fell by nearly half – from 47% to 24% – between 1974 and 2012, according to the General Social Survey (GSS). http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/11/06/the-number-of-u-s-catholics-has-grown-so-why-are-there-fewer-parishes/
Catholics' Church Attendance Resumes Downward Slide - Gallup News
Map [MA]: Catholic Church closings in the past 10 years - WWLP.com
Pittsburgh diocese to reduce 188 parishes to 57 - Crux Now
'It's All About Church Closings': Catholic Parishes Shrink In Northeast
Archdiocese May Close Nearly 100 Churches in Next 15 Years
Between 2015 and 2060, the world’s population is expected to increase by 32%, to 9.6 billion. Over that same period, the number of Muslims – the major religious group with the youngest population and the highest fertility – is projected to increase by 70%. The number of Christians is projected to rise by 34%, slightly faster than the global population overall yet far more slowly than Muslims. As a result, according to Pew Research Center projections, by 2060, the count of Muslims (3.0 billion, or 31% of the population) will near the Christian count (3.1 billion, or 32%) http://www.pewforum.org/2017/04/05/the-changing-global-religious-landscape/#global-population-projections-2015-to-2060
Catholic Answers, the #1 propaganda site, with mods which seem to be longing for the days and means of the Spanish Inquisition. site
some of them are converts to the Catholic Church, having read themselves in via the Early Church Fathers
Which is quite telling. For rather than Scripture being determintive of what the NT church believed (including how they understood the OT and gospels), as the only wholly inspired substantive authoritative source for that (in which distinctive RC doctrines are not manifest ), instead it is the uninspired words of men. And which testify to an increasing infiltration of false beliefs and traditions of men.
Actually, the RCC itself fosters faith in herself, and looking to its leaders above Scripture, and thus insofar as they goes South, so do their followers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.