Hannah Edelheit
Festive red poinsettias adorn the altar of the Belmont-Watertown United Methodist Church, as members of The Tintinnabulators ring out the hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” with traditional handbells, marking Advent season at a recent Sunday service.
But as members celebrate the holiday season at this 102-year-old building on Common Street in Cushing Square, the church faces an uncertain future.
“[We] can’t afford to keep these big buildings,” Pastor Gary Richards told The Belmont Voice.
The congregation put the church and parish house up for sale earlier this year for $6.5 million. However, they were taken off the market after eight months after failing to get any viable offers, and are in the process of deciding what to do with the buildings in the future.
“The plan is to … build sustainable worship space — community space that the church can afford and can keep up,” Richards said.
The church’s age and size, combined with a declining membership, make it expensive to maintain, he said.
Accessibility and heating could also be barriers to selling the building. The church is on a hill and has many stairs, which hinder accessibility. The current steam heat system is inefficient, because it takes a lot of energy to heat up the entire building, Board of Trustees Chair Joel Grimm said.
“We’re actually not very good stewards when it comes to energy,” Grimm said.
Pandemic Contributed to Declining Membership
Richards has been at the church for six years. About 75 people attended services when he started, but these days that number has dropped to 35.
In the beginning of the pandemic, Grimm and Richards conducted online services, like many places of worship. Today services are held in person and virtually, but the church is still struggling to regain pre-pandemic attendance numbers.
The lower attendance is part of a nationwide trend. According to a 2023 Gallup poll, church attendance has failed to rebound to pre-pandemic levels, and over the past decade has dropped by about 10 percentage points to 31% of Americans.
Pastor Eric Wefald, president of the Belmont Religious Council, said these community spaces are more important than ever to help people recover from the isolation created during the pandemic.
“I do feel that one of my main tasks is to create a healthy and nurturing community,” Wefald said. “I believe that [it’s] human nature. We need community. We need places where we can find meaning, where we have belonging.”
The Belmont-Watertown United Methodist Church (BWUMC) also owns another historic church, at 80 Mount Auburn St. in Watertown after merging with St. John’s United Methodist Church in 2012.
BWUMC also tried to sell some property it owned next to that church — a 23,000 square foot building for $2.6 million — but gave up after it was on the market for a year and a half.
“After the pandemic, you know, a lot of space became available,” Richards said. “And if you go down Mount Auburn St., you’ll see two churches that are renovated into condominiums.”
Historic Legacy
The church in Cushing Square is an enduring landmark, known for the music played from its outside speakers, as well as its imposing Gothic Revival style, with stone trim, pointed arch and rectangular openings.
The church broke ground in 1922 and took 16 years to complete, according to the Belmont Historical Society. It holds a special place in the memories of long-time members.
“People walk in here and they smell it,” Richards said. “And it smells like how it smelled when they were 10 years old, and they look at it and they get these flashbacks. It’s very emotional for some people.”
The church isn’t just a place of worship. The basement is an auditorium-style room with a stage at the front and a gym attached to the side.
“These churches are originally supposed to be for community use, not just for worship itself, but just for community space,” Richards said.
“We want to be able to preserve the community feeling,” Grimm said, “But we have to preserve the church first to enable all of that.”
Uncertain Future
The proposed sale of the church has taken an emotional toll on the worshippers and town itself, Richards said.
“There’s an important visual, cultural and visceral effect of having a church,” Richards said.
The congregation and board of directors are in discussions about what to do next, whether they will try to sell the church again, or pursue another strategy.
“It gives us more flexibility as we decide, as a congregation, what direction we want to go in,” Grimm said.
But ultimately, it could all come down to finances.
“The church needs to keep making decisions to move forward,” Richards said. “To relieve itself of this burden, these properties are extremely expensive to maintain.”