THOUGHTS ABOUT ST. JAMES THE GREATER...

"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." (Hebrews 10:25)

First, I need to explain that this piece is NOT about the ancient saint of the church, St. James the Greater. Rather, it is about the plight of the St. James the Greater Roman Catholic parish in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

St. James the Greater Catholic Church has an impressive facility and piece of property on Route 9 (a major thoroughfare through Boston's western suburbs). St. James is one of many Catholic churches which were closed by the Archdiocese of Boston several years ago. The story is complicated, but to try to simplify it, the Archdiocese of Boston faced two great crises during the 2000s. The first was the "clergy sex scandal". It was the Boston Globe that broke this story wide open in 2002. Scores of people came forward to say they'd been sexually molested by priests between the 1950s and 1990s. Perhaps 5% of the priests had been pedophiles. Very few Roman Catholic parishes in the Boston area were not somehow affected by this scandal. There were HUGE lawsuits and the Archdiocese had to pay out millions. The second crisis was declining attendance. The weekend attendance at Roman Catholic churches in metro Boston today is probably only about half what it was forty years ago. Due to these crises, the Archdiocese moved to close quite a few church properties and sell them.

Some of the closed parishes were in poor urban areas. Attendance had declined, and facilities were falling apart. Closing such churches DID make quite a bit of sense. What did NOT make sense, however, was closing churches in suburban areas which seemed to be doing well. One such Catholic church was St. Jeremiah's in Framingham's fairly affluent north side. Part of that church's claim to fame was that teacher/astronaut Christa McAuliffe grew up in that church and her mother still attended church there. Another, was St. James the Greater in Wellesley which is one of the most wealthy suburbs of Boston. At many of the closed church facilities, laypeople from the parishes began to occupy the buildings in "vigil" twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. This was done at both St. Jeremiah's and St. James the Greater. The Archdiocese DID sort of compromise on St. Jeremiah's. It still functions as a Catholic worship center in a somewhat limited capacity. But the Archdiocese has been firm that St. James the Greater will not reopen. Frankly, the parishioners there argued that the Archdiocese did NOT close St. James the Greater because of declining attendance nor because of financial problems. Racher, the people argued that this was just TOO valuable a piece of property for the Archdiocese to sit on, and that their church was being sacrificed so the Archdiocese could sell the property for "big money".
Honestly, I'd say that charge probably has merit.

The church has been "in vigil" since 2004. When I was still pastoring First Assembly of God of Framingham, the guy who serviced our fire extinguishers a couple of years ago told he me had some relatives who were among those standing vigil at St. James and that he was very proud of them. St. James the Greater parish has been in the news in the Boston media this past weekend. The Archdiocese has shut down the boiler and shut off the water to the building. Their reason is that the insurance company has demanded this, saying the boiler is unsafe. The "faithful" at St. James the Greater do not believe that story and say it is an "underhanded" move by the Archdiocese to try to force them out. The "faithful" have had a port-a-potty installed on the property and say they'll "wear overcoats" and keep up the vigil throughout the winter.

I have mixed feelings about those staging the vigil. On the one hand, the church PROPERTY and BUILDINGS are really NOT "the church". The Bible teaches that the PEOPLE make up the church. The building is just a place for the people to worship. The Greek word for church is "ekklesia" from which we get the term "ecclesiastical". "Ekklesia" literally means "assembly". (Incidentally, that's where the Assemblies of God got their name from!) But, on the other hand, there are tremendous emotional attachments to a church building. The little church that I pastored has been closed, but a Spanish-speaking church continues to hold services there. THAT'S been a big encouragement to the former members of First Assembly of God of Framingham. BUT the church facility where my wife and I were married, and where all of our babies were decicated (Assemblies of God and Baptists do "baby dedications" rather than infant baptisms) AND where I served as an Assistant Pastor is now a public school there on Route 27 in Walpole near the Medfield line. Ironically, when the foundation for that building was poured, a Bible was placed right into the concrete to indicate its founding on the Bible. Today, it's an elementary school. I've driven up there once in awhile. For those of us who were part of Christian Life Center during its glory days of the 1980s, seeing what happened to that property is pretty sad.

They've been in vigil at St. James the Greater for seven years. I know that those in vigil think if they give up now, the hierarchy has won. They'd probably even feel that evil triumphed over good. I wonder, though, if it isn't time to move on to a different tactic. Those in vigil have certainly made their point. I'd suspect the Archdiocese probably WOULDN'T have opted for this closing in 2004 if they knew all the grief it would cause them. Maybe this IS the time to end that phase, and move on to something else.

I think either a documentary or a book including a lot of glossy photos that tells the story of what happened to the church and of the people who fought the hierarchy COULD be very interesting and COULD get them a lot of publicity. Both in the story of the exodus and the "recent" story of the holocaust, we've learned from our Jewish friends the value of continuing to tell a story so that it is not forgotten.

NO, I'm not equating the closing of a Catholic church facility to the murder of six million Jews or of the Hebrew slavery in Egypt. Certainly not! But the lesson is "TELL THE STORY"! I don't know if the right filmmaker could be found...or the right author...or photographer...or all three. Maybe a website could be set up dedicated to such a project. Yes, the property there on Route 9 might be bulldozed to put in a Japanese car dealership or something, but the story could be spread and told to multitudes...at least to prevent such a happening in the future.

Yeah, that's my advice to the faithful at St. James the Greater in Wellesley, Massachusetts...