After months of silence, voices were heard again this morning in the church of Grolloo. The pews are full, hands are being shaken and fellow villagers are catching up with each other. It is the first service since the church closed its doors at the end of last year, and that feels special.
“Welcome everyone, we are happy that you have come in such large numbers,” says Gerhard ter Beek, chairman of the church council, visibly relieved to the full church hall. “We didn’t think six months ago that we would ever get this far again.”
The church in Grolloo, built in 1853, had been struggling with declining visitor numbers for some time. The biweekly services only attracted about fifteen people. Around the turn of the year, the difficult decision was therefore made to stop for the time being.
But saying goodbye to the church completely turned out to be more difficult than expected. Not only because of the financial consequences, but especially because many villagers noticed how much the church actually means to the village. “Then a number of new people formed a new church council to make a new start,” says Ter Beek. “That took some time and that’s why we were closed for a number of months.”
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