SAND LAKE, Mich. — A Catholic church in Sand Lake, one that's served the small, rural village for more than a century, is set to close after its parish merges with another parish.
On June 29, the Catholic Diocese of Grand Rapids announced the move as part of its Rooted in Christ plan, a pastoral plan that aims to close and consolidate certain parishes in an attempt to make "administrative burdens and sacramental responsibilities more manageable" due to a decline in priests.
In 2024, the Diocese of Grand Rapids had only one priestly ordination. In 2025, it had zero priestly ordinations and seven of its pastors were either granted senior priest status or reassigned outside the diocese.
Read the full Rooted in Christ Pastoral Planning Process here.
Given this reality, Most Reverend David Walkowiak, the Bishop of Grand Rapids, said he had to "take a hard look at the well-being of our priests and parish communities."
"I recognize that change is difficult and takes an emotional toll, especially when that change occurs in places and communities where key moments in our life of faith occurred," Walkowiak said. "We risk stagnation and even decay if we do not make adjustments."
Per the pastoral plan, Mary Queen of Apostles in Sand Lake is set to merge with St. John Paul II in Cedar Springs.
While the church building at Mary Queen of Apostles will continue to be used for religious purposes — weekly mass on Mondays along with confession and adoration — until the merger is completed and the property is sold, its final Saturday mass is this weekend.
"It's a very sad situation," said Fred Patin, a parishioner. "We're supposed to be building up the church, not taking it down."
Patin is a member of one of the "window families" in the parish, a term used to describe those whose parents, grandparents or great-grandparents helped pay for the church's stained glass windows. Back in the day, those who scrounged together $20 could get their names etched onto them.
"Would you believe that?" Patin said. "I know most of the families who are on those windows. I know most of them personally."
Founded in 1923, Mary Queen of Apostles operated out of a basement before the main structure of the church building was erected in 1933. A nearby facility historically used for fellowship and religious education, Cabrini Hall, is also on the property.
"There's a real deep sense of community, a real deep sense of connection," said Larry Smith, a parishioner whose grandfather helped dig out the church basement with horse and bucket.
"There's certain change that's not good and there's certain change that is good," he said. "We're trying to work the best we can and look to our Heavenly Father for guidance."
Smith says the merger did not come as a surprise to many in the parish, as it had been shrinking over time. They shared their priest with another parish. Two Sunday morning Masses and an anticipatory Mass on Saturday had turned into a single, Saturday Mass. The religious education program stopped. The youth group left.
"Our history, our culture is being squashed and eliminated because it doesn't fit the current norm," Smith said.
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Meitler, a Catholic consulting firm, put together the Rooted in Christ plan, collecting data from 79 parishes across 11 counties in the Diocese of Grand Rapids. They also visited every parish and interviewed their priests.
"Each of us priests can only say so many masses on a given Sunday," said Fr. Lam Le, the priest at both Mary Queen of Apostles and St. John Paul II.
Le, who was born in Vietnam and raised by farmers, says he felt at home in the agricultural setting of Sand Lake.
"As a human being, I'm grieving over this. There's a great pain and sorrow in my heart regarding this," he said. "But as a priest, as a son of the church, I have to be open to what is best. Where is God's Spirit leading us?"
There are people in the parish — cradle Catholics, religious education teachers, faithful choir members and more — who have a lifetime of memories at Mary Queen of Apostles.
"When I sit in the church, I wonder if I'm sitting in the pew where my great-grandparents sat or where my grandparents sat or where my mother sat," said Judy Vanderhyde, a parishioner.
"There's histories with the other families here," she said. "That's the part that's hard to leave."
There are also others who wanted the opportunity to make such memories.
"I wanted to be confirmed in the building where someday I'd get married and my kids would get baptized and where I'd someday hopefully have my funeral and get buried," said Kacie Platz, a young parishioner.
"Obviously, I don't get that," she said.
While a parish is its people, this place in Sand Lake has brought these people together for more than a hundred years.
"God wouldn't allow such a great sorrow if he couldn't somehow bring a good from this," Platz said. "God has some grand plan where he's going to take the sorrow that we feel and he's going to use it for good, and we just can't see that."
