[click here for more images near the church]
"Death
of a Church" has been calling out to me
since I was a child, visiting my ancestors often in the hills of Eastern
Kentucky. When cannel coal was discovered there around 1900, the
coal
company constructed a school, a post office and a Union church
that
was the envy of any rural community. The church was the
spiritual
and cultural center of the community (it was "shared" by
five
different denominations on a rotating weekly basis) until the
depression
and the use of natural gas and electricity virtually
rendered
coal from that location unprofitable.
The workers moved out, the population dwindled to near nothing and
no
one was left to go to the Union Church. Most church-going members
of
the community now attend indigenous rural churches in the area.
One
of my favorite quotes comes from the woman who keeps an eye
on
the decaying property, Hattie Benton, who says about the town:
"The
young people move out as soon as they can, and the old people just die."
Ronald
Perkins, the town elder, put the church's situation bluntly -
"It
closed because nobody came to church any more."
The Cannel City Union Church has been vacant since 1961 (the year I was
born)
and
it sits rotting from the inside out, ignored and unused -
a
monument of peeling paint, broken stained glass and flaking ceilings.
I
see a scary analogy to modern churches -
they
must evolve and change or people will
go
elsewhere and the church will die from within.
No
one will be left - only four walls that eventually collapse.
The
same can be said about our society and life itself.
I
invite you to think about that a bit.
Preparation
for this exhibition has been an ancestral and spiritual
pilgrimage
for me. My Appalachian roots and family heritage have been
my
strength and source of pride all my life. I am very fortunate to
have a remarkable
family
- strong, moral, proud. This exhibition is dedicated to the Benton
Family,
These
72 dpi website scans cannot come close to the warmth and
intensity
of the original 11x14" toned gallery prints.
I
look forward to sharing them with you.
***click here for photos & gallery comments from the Hotel Gallery exhibition***
***click here for media/press and gallery comments from the MSU exhibition***
***click here for "Death of a Church" - an interview with Robert Miller***
front cover of July 2002
Messenger magazine
