The Shelton Congregational Church has served the community for 120 years, but after Sunday, it will be no more.
The church on Coram Avenue will close its doors following this weekend’s service, according to Rev. Shepard Parsons who sent a letter to parishioners.
“After the last hymn is sung and the benediction given,” he wrote in the letter, “we will leave the building and shut the doors of Shelton Congregational Church behind us for the last time.”
Declining attendance is to blame.
At its peak, 500 people would fill the pews. Now, only a few dozen show up to Sunday services.
“Oh, I started to cry,” longtime churchgoer Lynn Traverse said when she found out.
She and her late husband were married there in 1990.
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“It was just so beautiful,” Traverse said.
On Sunday, she and many others will attend services for the final time.
“This will be an especially sad weekend because my husband passed away three years ago Saturday and the church is closing Sunday,” Traverse said.
The church will be sold, according to the letter.
Grace Bible Church will take over the space.
