Though it survived Pottstown’s waning economic fortunes in recent decades and devastating floods in 2006, a small Chester County church on a dead-end Main Street finally came to its end this week.

On Tuesday, Pastor Susan Folks stood before her St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church congregation of about 30 and dozens more who came to say goodbye before closing the doors for the last time, according to a report on Philly.com.

“After more than 70 years,” the article read, “St. John’s fell victim to a constellation of demographic trends that close countless houses of worship each year, said Bishop Claire Burkat, leader of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Aging congregants, shifting levels of spiritual commitment and competition for leisure time are all part of a cultural transformation that the church must change to keep up with.”

And while St. John’s members tried to keep up, they ultimately decided the time to close had arrived.

Read much more of their story, from the 1942 founding by Transfiguration Evangelical Lutheran Church to their fruitless efforts to save it at the end, on Philly.com here.

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Top Photo via Philly.com