Acts of God costing churches, synagogues

LYNN – Three weekend snowstorms have been great for workers and students looking for an extra day off. But for area houses of worship, attendance and collections are down, snow removal expenses are up, and religious leaders are hoping worshipers return soon.”The way the snow has fallen – Saturday into Sunday – it’s really hurt attendance,” The Rev. Brian Flynn, pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Lynn, said Sunday evening. “And if attendance is down, collections are down.”Three major snowstorms on either Sunday or Saturday into Sunday since late January have helped blanket Boston with 102 inches of snow as of Feb. 27, the second-highest amount of snowfall in city history. This winter also set records including for the highest amount of snow in a 30-day period and in a month (with said month being the shortest of the year), and for the highest number of days with measurable snowfall, according to The Weather Channel. And although snowstorms may be considered acts of God, the Almighty isn’t necessarily responsible for cleaning a snowstorm up.And in addition to snowfall, icy sidewalks, snowbanks narrowing roads and limiting visibility at intersections, and cold temperatures have kept many homebound.”You have this perfect storm of people not being able to go to worship and so not bringing in offerings, combined with much higher than usual costs,” says Cindy Kohlmann, who works with Presbyterian churches in Greater Boston and northern New England.She says the financial toll could force some of the roughly 60 Presbyterian congregations in the region to close. The churches have collectively requested at least $300,000 from the national church’s disaster relief fund to help cover their bills.A number of religious leaders, however, say donations are not down as drastically as they could be, given that attendance has dipped anywhere from 15 to 50 percent. Online donations increasingly are a reliable revenue source, helping many weather the lean attendance months.The Sunday storms have also disrupted the fellowship of church services.”(Sunday’s) like the day, it’s the main reason that we’re here, and it’s sad when we can’t get together,” said The Rev. Martha Leahy of First Congregational Church United Church of Christ in Saugus on Sunday.Leahy said that the weather has twice forced the church to cancel Sunday services due to parking bans along Saugus streets (the church does not have a parking lot, Leahy explained). Although no parking lot means no snow-removal costs, ice dams formed on the church’s roof required buckets to be placed throughout the sanctuary, Leahy said. And zero congregants on two Sundays means zero donations on two Sundays.Meanwhile, elder congregants have stayed away due to slippery sidewalks and cold. Community meetings, programs and activities also have had to be rescheduled.”People are hunkering down at night and they’re not coming back out,” says Alan Teperow, executive director of the Synagogue Council of Massachusetts and a member of Temple Emanuel in Newton, an affluent Boston suburb. “Once you’re home, it’s difficult to say you’ll go back out and face the frigid temperatures.”So, religious leaders are having to find new ways to reach out to their members.”We use our website and Facebook to keep people updated on the news, and we call the elderly who might not have Internet access,” Leahy said.The Massachusetts Church of Christ has also reached out and checked in with the local congregation. “It’s tough,” Leahy continued. “You work up to Sunday and put all your energy into it and then it doesn’t happen.”In Marblehead, Our Lady Star of the Sea had its first normal level of attendance Sunday in a month.”I was talking to a priest friend of mine, and we were just saying wasn’t it so nice to see everybody back after the storm,” said The Rev. Michael Steele, pastor of the Catholic church.Steele said the parish didn’t cancel services per se, but the travel ban during winter storm Juno kept everybody from the earliest servi