The Waldoboro United Methodist Church, which has been on Friendship Road since 1857, is set to close on June 30.
According to Bangor Daily News, the Waldoboro church was constructed in 1857 on a 67-by-120-foot plot of land on Friendship Road. Now that they are parting ways, the church building and the adjacent parsonage will be given to the New England United Methodist Church Conference.
Minister Greg Foster said that the church's declining membership could not sustain it. He maintains, however, that there is still work to be done in Waldoboro, including caring for the community's poor who are not served by any church.
"The church is the people and the community of God, and that will go on," he said.
Congregants will be transferred to other churches in the neighborhood, and Foster will continue his work as minister via social media and email until he finds a new vocation.
According to Waldoborough Historical Society president Jean Lawrence, the church's origins date back to 1793, when Methodist circuit rider Jessie Lee served seven Christian villages, including one in Waldoborough. Lawrence added that other members of the church mortgaged their farms to donate to the building, which cost an extra $4,000 to complete.
Because of COVID-19, the church "went remote" for a time, but when it returned to in-person services, only around five to ten people showed up.
Lawrence believes that "societal changes" had a role in the church's demise, as well as a lack of effort to invite new families.
"Once you start losing your youngsters, it's very hard to keep a church going," she said.
The last service will be held on June 27th and will be a gathering where members may share their memories of the community. The church was well-attended and had a 30-member choir during its peak in the 1970s and 1980s.
"I look forward to that in a way," said Foster.
"It was a wonderful place for us to raise our boys. I hate to see it go," says a former preacher.
"I have witnessed the most beautiful people move through that church," Medomak Valley High School's administrator adds. "To have it close during COVID is even more poignant because it doesn't give me a chance to say goodbye."
The Waldoboro United Methodist Church, located at 85 Friendship Road, will continue to host Sunday service at 11 a.m. until the church officially closes.
According to Outreach Magazine, by the end of 2020, David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group, predicted that up to one out of every five churches might close permanently due to COVID-19 closing orders. Despite the fact that many churches have reopened, he claims that fewer people are going in person, which is affecting contributions.
In an interview with NPR on August 24, 2020, Kinnaman said, "[Churches are] recognizing that the relationships that they thought were much deeper with people were actually not as deep as they expected. Simply reopening a church doesn't fix the underlying economic challenges that you might have."
Kinnaman, on the other hand, feels that the "online church is here to stay."
