A national trend away from organized religion will be manifesting itself in the Capitol Hill and Central District area as a pair of Catholic churches will close.

The precise timelines are not firm, but the Archdiocese of Seattle has announced that St. Patrick’s and St. Mary’s churches will both close, and their congregations will be merged with other nearby churches.

A survey released by Gallup earlier this year found that 47% of Americans belong to a church, synagogue or mosque, the lowest number ever recorded by the organization, and the first time its dipped below 50%. In 1999, the number was 70%, a number that had been relatively stable since the 1930’s, Gallup found.

The numbers are even more acute in Washington, where a 2018 study found that 47 percent of state residents identified as nonreligious, compared to 33% nationwide. The state ranked as the sixth least religious at that time.

As those trends have filtered to the local level, religious institutions have started closing. Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church closed back in 2019. And the Progressive Missionary Baptist Church closed back in 2016. Next up are likely to be the pair of Catholic churches.

What happens to the buildings? “It’s part of the process, but it’s way at the end,” said Helen McClenahan, managing director of communications for the Archdiocese of Seattle.

The archdiocese, which spans Western Washington from Canada to Portland began a study in 2016 to evaluate a strategic plan for the region. Some of the statistics presented in that study paint a picture of a group with a steep drop in participation. From 1999-2018, the total population in Western Washington increased by 28.4%. Over than same time, the number of people attending a Catholic mass decreased by 15.5%.

Similarly, while total births increased by 17.2%, the number of Catholic baptisms dropped by 21.5%. And the number of marriages rose by 4.9%, while the number of Catholic marriages dropped by 49.5%.

With that context, the deaneries, or regions within the archdiocese, each had to look at how their individual churches were performing. McClenahan said they considered things like average attendance at mass, how many sacraments (things including but  not limited to baptisms and weddings) were being performed, if there was a school attached, what other sorts of outreach missions were happening, and other factors within each parish.

The study found St. Mary’s had an average mass attendance of 368 people, measured in October 2019. St. Patrick’s averaged 189, according to McClenahan.  Those numbers coupled with other factors led the archdiocese to decide on the closures.

The original plans called for St. Mary’s, located near Washington Middle School at 604 20th Ave. S, to close and merge with St. Therese in Madrona. However, St Mary’s is also considering merging with St. Edward in Hillman City. Many of the parishioners at St. Mary’s are Spanish speaking, and may be more comfortable at St. Edward, which has a Spanish-speaking priest. Members of the congregation are currently weighing which of the parishes might be a better fit.

St. Mary’s houses one of the largest food banks in Seattle, and the archdiocese hopes to find a way to keep it operational. However that will depend, in part, on which of the parishes St. Mary’s merges with. After the new, merged parish is created, that new entity will need to decide if it wants to maintain the food bank.

McClenahan said everyone involved seems to want to keep the food bank operating, no matter the outcome of the merger talks.

“I would be shocked if it doesn’t keep going,” she said.

St. Patrick’s, located near Roanoke Park and the I-5 onramp off Harvard Ave. at 815 E. Edgar St, will close and merge with either St. Joseph’s on Capitol Hill or Sacred Heart, near the Seattle Center. That closure is being put on pause for a bit, however. Currently, St. Joseph’s does not have an assigned pastor, complicating any congregational merger. The Archdiocese is waiting until a pastor is assigned before moving ahead with the closure discussions.

At that point, it will go through a process similar to St. Mary’s where the congregation will discuss the options of which place to move to.

In theory either congregation could split itself between those two churches, and any individual might choose to begin attending any other church they like. But there are some issues with Catholic doctrine, such as records which must be moved to a new parish.

And ultimately, the new parish will have input about what will happen to the buildings and land. McClenahan explained that the new parish will likely form a stakeholder group which will make a recommendation about what to do with the property. Selling it is an option, she said, but it’s far from the only one. Sometimes merging parishes decide to keep both buildings and use them for different purposes. In other cases, they may work with a Catholic charitable organization to build housing on the site, or begin an outreach program housed in the building.

Then the group’s recommendation will move upward through the hierarchy until eventually the archbishop makes the final decision about the disposition of the property.

Meanwhile, another Capitol Hill-area spiritual community is also considering future development though from a much different vantage point. St. Mark’s is weighing a recommendation to develop the property next to the church as multi-family residential housing as its congregation continues to thrive.

The St. Mary’s property has an appraised value of $7.3 million, and according to property tax records was built in 1911. The church building sits on about 1.4 acres.

St. Patrick’s, according to tax records, was built in 1960, though the congregation dates itself to 1917. It has an assessed value of $3.4 million. The church building and its associated parking lot cover about three-fourths of an acre.

Both churches have other nearby buildings which are associated with the church, as well. Zoning on both properties would allow housing to be built on the land.

Another facet of the strategic planning touched on another Capitol Hill-area church, Immaculate Conception at 820 18th Ave. But that church is charged with revitalizing itself, rather than merging. It had an average attendance of 165 people.

McClenahan said that is an historic church and has one of the largest populations of Black Catholics in the area, so the archdiocese wants to see it continue and thrive. A new pastor, the Rev. ‘Woody” McAllister was assigned there in July, and he’ll be charged with leading that effort.

The larger Catholic Church organization in the region also hopes to learn from itself. Some churches like St. Joseph’s, are thriving while others see attendance slipping. Part of the planning process is to figure out why that is.

“What can we learn from each other?” McClenahan said.

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