Good Grace

The Netherlands is becoming increasingly secularized, and each year, more church communities are forced to close their doors due to diminishing attendance. The churches themselves are then either demolished or put to another use. Just such a fate hangs over the heads of the parishioners of the Catholic church Maria Gewanden in Hoensbroek, Limburg, the southernmost province of the Netherlands. It is difficult for this tight-knit group to accept because the church is not merely a building to them: they cherish precious memories of very significant events in their lives, of marriages, funerals, and baptisms. And the church is also a place of refuge in difficult times. The parish priest, who shuttles back and forth between various churches in the area, acknowledges his parishioners feelings but is more down to earth on the matter, because in Hoensbroek there is also a larger church where he can serve all the faithful together. For a year, Lieza Röben followed events in and around this church community, observing and recording the great devotion with which the volunteers clear autumn leaves and dust the pews and the statue of Mary, and talking with people about the drastic changes they are facing.