Historic Lynn Methodist church to close Sunday

LYNN – Trinity United Methodist Church will close its doors Sunday after 138 years of service, due to dwindling membership and a less than perfect economy.The Boston Street church’s last service will be held at 11 a.m. for Trinity’s remaining parish, about six committed members, down from the once 200.Jack Herlihy, a lifelong member of the church, said the decision to close the church was no surprise.Trinity has been trying to push off closing for about 10 years, according to Herlihy, the church’s historian.”It was expected to close a long time ago,” said Herlihy.The parish initially voted to close the church a year ago, but the New England Methodist Conference in Lawrence, the region’s Methodist governing body, encouraged Trinity to keep open, hoping for a turnaround. “The economy got too bad, people died and there wasn’t going to be enough resources,” Herlihy said.Herlihy says the parish foresaw Trinity’s demise in the mid-90s, and tried to invest money in full-time pastors to try to “redefine the church’s identity and be more viable to the community.”But as the years passed, with no endowments and shrinking community support, Trinity no longer had the money for a pastor, or even heat, electricity or a phone line.”The pastors tried to rejuvenate it, but socially and culturally there wasn’t enough there,” says Herlihy. “People just don’t go to church as much as they used to.”Herlihy points to the aging population as a contributing factor to the church’s closing, as well as a changing neighborhood demographic.”Times change,” said Herlihy. “Older generations die off, newer generations don’t go, people move away and no one joins. They lose their faith system and move on. Trinity is a victim of that dwindling.”There will now only be two Methodist churches left in Lynn.Herlihy also pointed to technology as a factor for the smaller amount of parishioners.”It’s such a different world now with the electronic media,” he said. “It will be interesting to see what happens in 20 years ? will people be worshiping on their BlackBerrys?”The fate of Trinity’s church will be left up to the decision of the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church.Herlihy says for now a Brazilian congregation is using the facility.Trinity’s parish will join the Grace United Methodist Church on Broadway Street in Lynn.Herlihy is worried that the Trinity’s already small parish will lose more members in the switch to Grace.”You always do when there’s a merger, they don’t work. People just feel a loss of Trinity. They’re not sure if they want to participate in the move.”