Recent grassroots efforts have prevented the razing of churches that have been closed for a number of years in Berkshire County. But the victories for preservationists don’t change the underlying issue, part of a national trend: many congregations are simply struggling to survive. In part two of a two-part series, this story takes a look at how some religious organizations in the Berkshires are having success in reaching more people.
“To be honest we can no longer in the church count on the fact that parents raise their children to come to church,” said Reverend Brent Damrow of The First Congregational Church of Stockbridge.
Damrow echoes what many faith leaders today are realizing and fearing…organized religious services have lost their spots on the weekly family calendar.
“The interesting thing is I think there’s this population of people in their 20s and 30s who may never have been part of church communities who are suddenly giving it a second chance or a first chance for them. We need to be ready and prepared to welcome them through the door,” said Damrow.
Damrow came to the church in January of 2013. Since then, membership has gone up 25 percent to 155 with about 100 people attending Sunday services, a jump of 45 percent. One of the reasons for the success is involving church parishioners in community events not centered solely on religion. Damrow says congregation members traveled to New York City for the Climate March while a sort of “happy hour” is in the works where Damrow travels to various restaurants on Friday afternoons to meet with congregation members and others. Parishioners will also gather to review ballot questions ahead of Election Day.
“Not as a way of prescribing how people should vote, but rather getting people over pizza to think about does our faith have anything to say about how we might think about voting,” said Damrow.
With a church that dates back to 1824, Damrow says increased membership has helped parish finances. Meanwhile, Rabbi Josh Breindel says over the last five years membership has grown at Temple Anshe Amunim in Pittsfield following a period of decline. He says the temple did a study of its services and community outreach to find ways to be more engaging and interactive through music, education and events. This year’s Rosh Hashanah service was held at Mass Audubon’s Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary.
“It was a beautiful thing to have a worship service, to be celebrating the New Year, one of the holiest days of the Jewish calendar and we weren’t even in our sanctuary,” Breindel said. “We were outdoors. That was a beautiful, beautiful thing. It was also very successful. This was only the second year we have done this and we didn’t even have enough handouts.”
Rabbi David Weiner of Knesset Israel, one of the largest Jewish communities in the county, says partnering with Temple Anshe Amunim and organizations near and far has helped keep membership numbers stable and even increase slightly.
“We partner with the Jewish Theological Seminary from Manhattan in bringing up four scholars to give lectures this summer where we had attendance of 80 to 90 people,” Weiner said. “But the class was held at Shakespeare and Company.”
But, Breindel adds more work remains.
“The weakness that we have in the Jewish community is providing services to Jewish youth after college and before they enroll their children,” Breindel said. “That’s been a perennial issue for us. Finding ways to engage people before they have families or ways to get youth involved that don’t just revolve around dating or trying to find a partner.”
At St. Agnes in Dalton, Father Chris Malatesta oversees the county’s largest Catholic congregation with some 4,000 members. He says the parish has bought into a national program called Life Teen in which teenagers direct their own ministry featuring social activity and community service. St. Agnes will soon launch an initiative called “Creating A Happy And Holy Parish” to further engage current parishioners incorporating their time and talent while increasing their knowledge of the faith.
“At one time we baptized babies and then we brought them through grade school and that’s how they learned about the faith,” Malatesta said. “Now we have to go out and evangelize and re-educate people.”
Malatesta says Pope Francis has helped change the conversation, showing organized religion can make a positive difference in people’s lives.
“It seems in so many recent years that we’re battling so many different things and all sorts of struggles that the church is having,” Malatesta said. “We always seem like we’re responding to those as opposed to being in a position where we can be very proud about what we are, not take people for granted, but really to be able to try to engage them. And I’m totally convinced on the fact that the more we engage them they become a very strong part of what we’re all about.”
Reverend Damrow, who is openly gay, says organized religion can be a lightning rod as the media picks up on extremes not necessarily reflected in some local congregations.
“So I think part of our job that we need to do better and part of our job in local churches, is doing a little bit of marketing,” Damrow said. “Letting the community know who we are, what we stand for, and why we are a place to come in both in good times and difficult times.”
Marketing is being done in different ways, especially in regard to reaching summer and even winter travelers in the Berkshires. Rabbi Breindel and Reverend Damrow say active Facebook pages and websites have led to a tourist population bump, while Rabbi Weiner’s following takes a more classic approach.
“Members of the congregation who are here year-round may work in a number of the different cultural organizations, shops, small businesses or even doctors’ offices around Pittsfield,” Weiner said. “Sometimes they find people when they’re at work and begin speaking about Jewish life in the Berkshire and this sort of snowballs. People end up coming for a Friday night meal, a service or a program and deciding it would actually be OK to get involved in the Jewish community up here.”
For most of the institutions, the goal is to place faith and organized religion back into the center of people’s lives like it was just a few decades ago. An interfaith effort two years in the making aims to do just that. Berkshire Organizing is part of the InterValley Project, a network of regional organizations stretching across New England, some dating back more than 30 years. Wendy Krom is helping form the Berkshire network, a process that has involved some 20 institutions with plans to launch officially in January. Together they plan to make systematic level changes to the county’s transportation services and food insecurity.
“For faith to be relevant in one’s life it needs to be lived in everyday life,” Krom said. “So it happens outside of the four walls of the church, the temple or the mosque. It’s being involved in your community in ways that can make a difference.”
This is part two of a two-part series on religious participation in the Berkshires. Click here for part one.
