Churches are Closing

We went to church this afternoon. We haven’t been to the Catholic Church together in months, but today the Bishop’s decisions about church closings and merges would be announced at the 4pm mass across the Capital Region. I felt it was a moment to experience and I was very curious to see how the simultaneous messaging would be done.

It was done very well. The music was about following Christ wherever he goes. The messages were about all people being welcomed and we also sang about surrendering to God’s will. Coincidence? Then the priest, not the Pastor for our parish but one from across town. Another message: Get ready for change. At the time of the sermon the priest had a humorous opener about dealing with the unexpected and making the most of a bad day then he read a letter from the Bishop---the body of the letter would be read in every church at the same time but one paragraph was customized for each church giving them the news of their church or “planning group.” The news for our church was minimal. One small church in a rural area will close in two years and the other three churches are encouraged to work closely together.

In other churches we knew it had to be worse. Congregations in Troy, Watrevliet and Cohoes were hearing the words “will close”. There had to be gasps and tears and there had to be anger.

I think about our Bishop, Howard Hubbard. A man becomes a priest to have a life of the sprit, to serve God and to one would think—not deal with the congress of the rest of the world. Instead for this man he becomes the CEO of the Diocese and has huge personnel problems, PR and marketing problems, deficit after deficit and then merger upon merger. He is living a CEO nightmare and has to make decisions with committee after committee. I do pray for this guy!

It was great to be in church with John. To hold hands, to sing side by side. To say words we both learned elsewhere and have said before, but now say together. Participating in mass together is a kind of intimacy that goes beyond sex.