Monday the Post and Times both had articles on the decline of churches. The Post covered the last service at a historic black church in NW DC while the Times article was on two declining black churches in Harlem, one of which has a carillon and both of which need repairs.
In both cases the articles focus on the impact of gentrification, on the loss of worshipers to the suburbs. That's a factor, I'm sure. But other factors include the decline of religion generally, the aging of the population which means fewer young people to bring to the church, and an inability to adapt to changing conditions. A social institution like a church can do very well in one era but fail in another, something like a company like General Electric, which was one of the titans of the economy at the turn of the century and now is fragmenting before our eyes.
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