Venerable St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in Leetsdale endured an epic flood and a series of other misfortunes, but couldn't survive the lack of people in the pews.
Fifty turned out Sunday for the 114-year-old mainstay's final service. Just a half-dozen have been actively worshipping there for the past year. The church plot off Broad and Rapp streets now will go to the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to be put up for sale. Profits will be used to help other congregations.
"It's a sad time of my life," said Anna Marie Kusnirak of Leetsdale, a former member who was baptized at St. Matthew's. "It was truly a family church."
The white-sided structure was built in 1891 by a German religious group known as the Economites. Though it survived the flood of 1936, it could not stand the test of time.
The number of active members dipped to 20 from more than 150 in the 1960s. Only five to seven attended regularly.
Other factors in church's closure: The building needs a new roof, new fixtures and probably new wiring, according to its pastor, the Rev. Thomas E. Moog.
"We've known this day has been coming for some time," Moog said yesterday before the start of a special service to mark the closure of the church. "The congregation is sad but they're resigned to it, they have been for a while."
Minutes before the start of yesterday's afternoon service, Bob Mercer stared wistfully at the building where he got married in 1941.
As president of the church council, Mercer, 85, has not only been a faithful Sunday worshipper but also bell ringer and snow sweeper.
"What can you do?" he said when asked about the closing, his eyes clouded with tears. "You can't operate a church with five people showing up."
Bishop Donald J. McCoid, who presided at the service, told the congregation the memory of the church will live forever.
"Today is a day where we take with us the love of what has happened in this place," McCoid said. "This church will always exist because we will treasure the people who made it a church for 114 years."
