The fall in membership of these two largest Christian institutions in Germany is leaving those churches little choice except to sell or demolish hundreds of buildings. The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reports 603 Roman Catholic and 444 worship places of the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD, the main Protestant Church) have been “deconsecrated”and no longer be used for worship services. For the Protestants, this has meant either selling or demolishing the buildings. It is estimataed that in 9 years, “every fourth or fifth church [building] will no longer be used for its original purpose”, says architecture professor Stefanie Lieb. She calculates that this could mean up to 10,000 churches would be silent on Sunday morning. They are already pretty much empty.
The reason is not surprising given is the constant fall in the membership of the two churches. Year end figures from 2023 show that the Roman Catholic Church in Germany lost 628,000 members, and the Protestant EKD, 593,000. This includes the intentional exit of members (to avoid church tax) but also includes deaths and the drop in baptisms. The reason they are closing now is the high cost of maintaining these old and expensive structures -- estimated to cost the Roman Catholic Church in Bavaria alone some 100 million euros annually.
Sure, this is not about preserving the buildings. It is up to the German people to determine which structures are culturally and historically significant and to fund them. But no one seems to be noticing how the numbers of Christians in Germany keeps circling the drain. What good is it to preserve a building if there is no concern for the salvation of the people who would worship and pray in those buildings? In any case, Germany is home to some of the most liberal and progressive versions of the Protestant side as well as the Roman Catholic side. Perhaps this ought to tell us something about the Christianity lite version most commonly known in Germany. It is not working.
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