By Le Bui
Northwest Asian Weekly
Photo from St. Ann Catholic Church’s FB
On a regular Sunday afternoon during “COVID season,” Father Tuan Nguyen enters St. Ann Catholic Church to a sound that he is not accustomed to hearing at a typical service: silence.
“This is the house the Lord made for his flock,” Nguyen said. “Without the flock, it feels incredibly empty.”
The emptiness of St. Ann that Nguyen described is due to the required social distancing regulations to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, a pandemic that has upended many aspects of American life.
The Catholic Church is no exception.
Churches across America had to close their doors to the public during this time, which could make matters worse for churches already struggling with declining participation. According to a News Gallup poll, over the past two decades, church participation dropped by 20%. Unfortunately, St. Ann has been losing its members steadily since 2015.
“I remember there used to be not enough seats to fit everyone in,” Nguyen said. “Nowadays, it seems there are too many empty seats.”
Father Nguyen is a member of the Archdiocese of Seattle and the pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church in Tacoma, Washington. According to the parish website, it was established in 1924 to accommodate religious services for those living in the orphanage chapel known as St. Ann’s Home. Over time, parishioners started to promote social and volunteer events to strengthen the church community, a community that eventually included more than 1,000 Vietnamese American members.
“The Vietnamese community really came together and turned this into a second home for me, ” Nguyen said. “People make up pieces of the church and when more people start to leave, more pieces are gone.”
Since the outbreak of the pandemic and the closure of church doors, St. Ann is one of many parishes that has dealt with financial struggles.
“We rely on contributions from donations we collect during services and not receiving that steady income every week has made it very difficult for us to grow in the ways that we want to.”
He said being cut off from that extra money has limited the parish’s ability to make physical improvements to the chapel, such as fixing the ventilation and air conditioning, repainting the pews, and creating new playgrounds for kids.
Sister Kim Tran, the Stewardship and Communications Coordinator at St. Ann, also touched on the difficulties of encouraging people to donate money to the church.
“It’s sad because we, as a community, work so hard to make the church what it is and it seems like people don’t have any interest in donating to a church that they aren’t able to go to for a while,” she said.
Both Nguyen and Tran reiterated that parishioners can make online donations, but rarely do. They believe this may be due to the elderly population’s inability to use technology and declining interest in caring for a church they physically can’t attend. Many families have also seen their income decline during the pandemic and can’t afford to donate.
The church’s weekly income has gone down from $7,000 to $5,000, Tran said.
Since churches have been forced to close their doors, services are now held online as a form of virtual worship, something parishioners seem to dislike.
“It’s hard to put Jesus at the forefront of your life and even harder when you have to worship in your own home instead of an actual church,” Nguyen said. “I know there are many people who attend our physical services weekly that choose not to attend our online masses and that’s very disheartening.”
He is also worried about the participation rate and the spiritual needs of his community. A Pew survey and a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute, found that one-third or more who attended regular masses haven’t bothered to attend online services. This could lead to an even more devastating decline in church participation because if people do not feel inclined to attend online masses, they may choose not to attend regular masses when church doors open again.
According to Nguyen, an average of 300 people attended in-person services at St. Ann, but only around 100 people participated in online worship.
Jennifer Mai, a parishioner at St. Ann, participates in online worship weekly. But she admits it’s not the same as in-person services.
“It feels as though I’m not obligated to follow along,” she said. “It’s like a routine that has been disrupted and I can’t keep track of my faith with everything else going on.”
Mai admitted it’s distracting and uncomfortable to fully commit to practicing her faith through online services when she is looking at a computer screen instead of a physical altar or priest.
“The parish is doing their best to set everything up and commit resources to make online services worthwhile,” she said. “Unfortunately, it’s not for everyone and it’s certainly not for me.”
Maria Nguyen (Photo provided by Le Bui)
The relationships between people within the Vietnamese community of St. Ann may also begin to falter without the ability to communicate through in-person services. This is something that Maria Nguyen, the leader of the Thieu Nhi Thanh The Youth Community (The eucharistic youth group) at St. Ann, believes could cause a decline in church participation.
“People, especially the younger generation, come to church to not only worship God but to spend time with one another,” she said. “COVID took that away from them, and could take away church participation as a result of the loss of connection.”Nguyen reiterated that it is not only essential to have a strong connection with God, it is equally important to have a powerful bond with your peers in the religious community, especially in regards to the younger generation.
“People have a tough time balancing their daily lives of school, work, family, and relaxation time and if these kids are not constantly exposed to God’s word and work, it could lead to them dropping out of the religion,” she said.
She believes keeping young people extremely active within the church should be a main priority because they are not as disciplined as adults and could stop going to church altogether if they are not constantly exposed to the St. Ann community.
The eucharistic youth group (Photo from St. Ann Catholic Church’s FB)
“We give the kids ample opportunities to connect through dance lessons, choir practices, Vietnamese language classes, Thieu Nhi meetings, bible studies, volunteer events, barbecues, picnics, and so much more,” Nguyen said.
“It’s through these moments that kids are able to realize that they really do belong here, in the presence of friends and presence of God, and I’m hoping we can expand upon that in the near future and make up for the time that COVID took from us.”
Le can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.