LEYDEN — For more than 45 years, Mary Lou Barton has regularly attended the Leyden United Methodist Church’s Sunday service, also acting as Sunday school superintendent for 20 years. She remembers welcoming anywhere from 15 to 20 children to class each week.
“Now there’s only three kids who come for Sunday school,” said Barton, the current church council president. “It’s just kind of depressing because I love my church.”
Coupled with declining attendance, the church is in a financial pinch. With the treasury containing slightly less than $6,000, the church could be insolvent before the end of 2017, Barton said.
“It’s just slowly going downhill, and we don’t want it to go downhill,” she said.
The congregation is small, with average Sunday attendance hovering between 15 and 20 people, Barton said. Consequently, the weekly collection is small, too.
“Attendance was just starting to go away even 10 years ago or so, maybe not quite that long,” Barton said. “People just stopped coming. I don’t know why.”
Bob Snow, chairman of the church board of trustees and former church council president, said declining population affects attendance in a minor way.
“The population was a little higher than it is now, but not that much,” he said. “People just don’t go to church. Too many other activities that keep ’em busy on Sundays.”
The church building was first constructed in 1841 as a meeting house to be used by both the Universalists and the Methodists, according to a booklet published by the church’s Anniversary Committee in 1941. The present church was organized by Rev. Frank C. Morse on March 11, 1866, starting with 32 members.
According to the pastor’s report of 1869, reprinted in the booklet, the congregation at the meeting house consisted of between 100 and 150 members, and 100 children were enrolled in Sunday school. Even at the meeting house’s 100th anniversary in 1941, attendance changes were becoming evident.
“Through most of the history of the church, a strong Sunday school has been maintained, but the decrease in population in recent years has created difficulties,” the booklet reads.
Today, expenses include the pastor’s salary for the Rev. Nami Yu’s salary, the pianist’s services, and heat and electricity bills.
“They even shut off the hot water there for a while to save money,” Barton said.
Snow said the church used to be able to support itself through collections and various fundraising suppers. However, he said, available space for seating at Town Hall — where suppers are hosted — is limited to about 40 people.
“We can’t seat as many; we can’t pick a date when someone else doesn’t have something going on,” he said.
The church’s biggest fundraiser, selling food at the Franklin County Fair, could also be in jeopardy, Snow and Barton explained. Installing necessary fire suppression systems in the food booth could cost thousands, Snow said, money the church simply doesn’t have.
“If that goes, the church goes,” Snow said.
Those interested in donating to the church can contact Barton by phone at 413-773-3548 or mail checks to Leyden United Methodist Church, West Leyden Road, Leyden, MA 01337.
You can reach Shelby Ashline at: sashline@recorder.com
413-772-0261 ext. 257