True, but in urban situations, it's usually not all that far to another place of worship of your own denomination. Corryong is at least an hour's drive from anywhere else and about two from Albury, the closest major centre. And that's when the fog doesn't slow drivers down to a crawl and ice and snow don't close the roads altogether.
The ageing and diminishing of the church is a reality all over Australia, but in isolated rural areas the effects are often more painful because of the distances involved. There are very real differences between moving to another church of your own denomination and joining with a congregation of another denomination/religious tradition.
Too true, but there can also be a lot of pain in losing a "sacred place".
(Warning, story coming up - I apologise in advance if anyone recognises the town I am talking about and is offended or annoyed by the story)
In the town in South Australia where I grew up, there used to be a Presbyterian church, a Congregational church and 3 Methodist churches. The Presbyterian church closed for lack of numbers before 1977, and the Congregational church was sold off at the time of union. The 3 former Methodist churches became UCA congregations. Around 2000-2001, 2 of the former Methodist churches were sold off and the 3 UCA congregations merged into one. Now the reasons for the sell off sound very practical, well thought out and it was probably inevitable when shrinking congregations and income are taken into account. (BTW, the population of that town has more than doubled since 1977)
Recently, I met an elderly friend of my parents who still lives in that town (she is in her late 70s). One of the former Methodist churches which was sold by the UCA had been "her" church. Her parents and her siblings had attended that church. She had gone to its Sunday School and to its youth group (or whatever youth groups were called in those times). She had met her husband there and that's where they had been married. Her three children were baptised and went to Sunday School there. Her husband was one of the band of men who in the 1950s bought the materials and built the church hall in their spare time. Two of her daughters had been married in the church and at least one of her grand-children was baptised there. One of her daughters died fairly young and her memorial service was conducted there. In the mid 1990s, her husband was buried from the church. She had attended worship at that church nearly every Sunday of her life, until the UCA stopped having regular worship there (a couple of years before it was sold). In some ways, it was her "sacred place", around which many of the major events in her life took place.
"Her" church is now a real estate or an accountant's office. The church hall which her husband helped build and in which her children attended Sunday School has been turned into offices. The church is in private hands and is no longer used for religious purposes.
As she told this story, she started crying and apologised for being so silly. Although the remaining UCA church is only about 8 kms from where she lives, that can be an impossible distance for an elderly woman who no longer drives. And anyway, as she puts it, the remaining UCA congregation is not "her church". Therefore, in her recent years, she has broken the habit of a lifetime and no longer regularly attends worship on a Sunday morning.
Even the process of moving to another church of your own denomination, if indeed you are able to move there, can involve pain.
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