The Day My Church Closed

By Lori Perkins

Today is the last day of service for my church, The Fort Washington Collegiate Church in Washington Heights. This is the church I grew up in. This is the church where I was baptized; the church where I went to Sunday school; the church where my mother, who was the director of Christian Education, received her religious calling to become one of the first female ministers; and the church where my father was a Deacon and an Elder for more than four decades. It was the church where I became a member at 12, and after my catechism was unable to continue praying when the Republican minister prayed for Nixon during Watergate so I asked my parents if I could go to another church and they let me. 

As an adult I was married in this church, I baptized my son in this church and I was an usher in the church as a young woman. After I moved away, I came back to the church occasionally and was overjoyed to find that the once conservative church I had grown up in was now so inclusive that we had a drag queen minister. I published BEYOND WORSHIP: Meditations on Queer Worship, Liturgy, & Theology, a service of inclusive liturgy,  with my church. It felt like a miracle.

I forgave my church and my church forgave me. During Covid, when services went virtual, I was so thankful that I could pray from my chemo bed during breast cancer recovery. When my mother passed away, it was the church where I was able to hold her memorial service filled with the people who loved her and the people she loved.

And today I went to service for the church’s closure, one of the saddest days of my life. I remember the words of the childhood hymn from Sunday school: 

The church is not a building,

the church is not a steeple,

the church is not a resting place,

the church is a people.

I truly hope that is true.

The church has renamed itself The Fort Washington Community Church and is now non-denominational (formerly Dutch Reformed and established as part of a community of churches founded by Peter Stuyvesant). The Mother Cabrini Shrine on 190th street has offered space for services there, which is so fitting because Mother Cabrini is the patron saint of immigrants and Washington Heights is quite possibly one of NYC’s most immigrant-centric neighborhoods.

Let’s hope the church is truly the people!