SS. Cosmas-Damian Church closing next month
SS. Cosmas and Damian Church, in Conshohocken, is closing its doors, effective March 16, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Sunday.
SS. Cosmas and Damian Church, in Conshohocken, is closing its doors, effective March 16, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Sunday.
In July 2014, the church merged with three other nearby parishes - St. Gertrude, St. Mary and St. Matthew - to form a consolidated St. Matthew Parish under the archdiocese's ongoing Parish Area Pastoral Planning Initiative. St. Matthew, on Fayette Street in Conshohocken, became the main parish location, while the other churches became worshipping sites for occasional Masses and weddings.
Since the merger, St. Matthew has handled all the church's expenses, but in its announcement Sunday, the archdiocese said maintenance of SS. Cosmas and Damian is no longer viable.
St. Matthew is facing the cost of needed renovations of space adjacent to its church, including a vacant school and convent, for after-school religious education, administrative purposes, and other activities. The archdiocese said it could not meet that commitment and continue to maintain SSS. Cosmas and Damian.
Church maintenance at SS. Cosmas and Damian is estimated to be $42,024 annually, along with an additional $36,550 in plumbing, heating, and electrical repairs. The bell tower also needs to be restored due to water damage, and the church's rectory, which has been vacant since the merger, requires ongoing maintenance so long as the church is open.
"For those who grew up going to SS. Cosmas, of course it's difficult to hear," said Kenneth Gavin, archdiocese spokesman. Gavin said the closing is a result of changing demographics of the Catholic population in Montgomery County. Many parishes were founded decades ago for different immigrant communities that Americanized over time. SS. Cosmas and Damian was founded in 1912 to serve the Italian community in Conshohocken and is one of the few in the world to have paintings covering the ceiling, which lavishly depict Saints in various biblical scenes.
The Coptic Orthodox Church is interested in purchasing the facility and its attached rectory, according to the archdiocese.
Since the four parishes merged in 2014, requests to use SS. Cosmas and Damian for public worship have dwindled, the archdiocese said, although it has continued to hold its annual September festival involving a street procession where churchgoers carry statues of their namesake saints.
Meanwhile, weekly Mass attendance at St. Matthew has nearly doubled from 1,086 in 2012 to 2,000 in 2015.
The Parish Area Pastoral Planning Initiative began in 2010 as a way for the Roman Catholic Church to reconsider the viability of its parishes. In fewer than five years, mergers have reduced the number of parishes in the five-county Philadelphia area from 266, to 219, according to the archdiocese.
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