Half a dozen volunteers are busy tidying up and cleaning the church building in Zuidlaren. Next Sunday the new bishop of the diocese of Groningen-Leeuwarden will visit and everything will be in tip-top order. “We have the final celebration on Sunday,” says Hilde de Boer. “That celebration will be withdrawn from our church’s worship service. The bishop may do that.”
Hilde de Boer is chairman of the location council, i.e. the board of the church. In recent years she has noticed that the volunteer base is aging. There is no new growth. As a result, the church building cannot be preserved for the religious community. “My husband and I came to live here in 1984, so we have churched here for more than forty years. The children were baptized here, had their first communion and we have been to church regularly ourselves.”
The Maria-ten-Hemel-Assumed Church is being sold and will eventually become a residential home. According to vice-chairman Joep Coppes of the parish council, this is part of a trend that has been going on for some time. “To keep a church open, you need volunteers to run the church. And especially in that area, we see major problems in Zuidlaren to continue to maintain its own building.”
According to De Boer, about thirty visitors come to worship every week. After Sunday they can go to the Dorpskerk, a little further away in Zuidlaren. “There are emotions involved, but actually the entire religious community has adopted a positive attitude. Everyone was of the opinion that the Village Church would be a nice new place.”
The parish has two more churches, in Assen and in Roden. However, the religious community in Zuidlaren wanted to stay in Zuidlaren and preferably in a church. That place was found at the Village Church, where Catholics will be guests of the Protestant community. A win-win situation according to Coppes. “On the PKN side, the decline in the number of churchgoers also plays a role, and we will of course also make our contribution there.”