Change and chaos in our churches

http://www.observertoday.com/articles.asp?articleID=15256

[The Observer] 23 Aug 2007--Christian churches nationally are facing enormous changes. In the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, for example, scores of churches have been slated for closings. The reasons are multiple and complex: a lack of priests, lack of parishioners, deteriorating buildings, duplication of services, geographic location, the end of the immigrant parish as the children and grandchildren of immigrants move away. In some communities these proposed closings have abraded raw nerves and engendered much controversy. I’m not addressing the merits of the competing arguments. I only wish to state that change in church life, as in all life, is inevitable.