BELLEFONTE, Pennsylvania:- The First Presbyterian Church of Bellefonte, with a 220-year history, held its final service on Christmas Eve.

The 15,000-square-foot church is scheduled to close on December 31 due to its declining membership.

“There’s just such a love among this congregation. We’ve all known each other so long and we know each other’s foibles,” church elder Candace Dannaker told the Centre Daily Times. “I’ll miss our personality, our laughter and our joy in just being together. And, of course, the faith aspect of sharing that with other like-minded people.”

The church was established in 1800 by the same men who founded the town of Bellefonte in 1795, at a time when there were only 16 states in the country, and counted among its members two former Pennsylvania governors.

Dannaker estimated that the church had about 40 members before the pandemic, which is now down to 25, and had no in-person worship from March 2020 until Easter Sunday 2021. When Dannaker joined 34 years ago, she said, there were about 200 people in attendance.

Pam Benson, 77, a member for 73 years, said that when she was born during World War II, many businesses were closed on Sunday and few events were held. She also believes that fewer parents now insist their children attend services and that churches have not always been competitive in recruiting new members.

“It was so different. Unless you were really sick, it was just what you did,” Benson said. “It’s just change, it’s progress. It’s what happens. Not that I like it, but it is what it is.”

Video of the final service posted on the church’s Facebook site included references to “the pain of saying goodbye to one another” but a reminder that “challenges aren’t anything new to humanity” and saying the Christmas message of hope “is just as timely and essential today as it was 2,000 years ago.”