By Michael D’Onofrio, The Journal News. (NY) When Deme Boutzalis began attending the Greenbush Presbyterian Church in the mid-2000s, she recalled there being something a little different about the congregation.
“The one thing that I liked that attracted me to this particular congregation was, when you walked in, you felt like family because it was a small congregation. You knew every person’s name,” Boutzalis said.
But after 204 years situated along Western Highway — started when the British-American War of 1812 was getting underway and Blauvelt was known as Greenbush — the church closed its doors.
The final service was held on Sunday.
Days before the final service, Boutzalis, who is the church’s clerk of session, spoke in the sanctuary alongside Marilyn Grosbeck, a Greenbush church elder, and Deborah Bradley, who was among those appointed by the Hudson River Presbytery to administer the church’s closing.
Sitting in one of the many Dutch-style wooden pews, Grosbeck, whose voice echoed in the empty church, said bluntly that many parishioners were “exhausted.”
“We don’t have the energy to do what needs to be done to keep the church open,” Grosbeck said. “People are tired. They’re old.”
The church has fewer than 50 members, and the average age of the congregation is between 80 and 85.
In the 1970s, membership was thriving and climbed to upwards of 275. But since then, the church’s numbers decreased.
Other elements of church life have also disappeared or declined, Grosbeck said. The church lacked a full-time pastor for more than three years, and the onetime full choir had dwindled to about four singers.
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Did the church teach evangelism so the church can grow??? If not, why not??