A few weeks ago, four units of the Antwerp Belgium Stake had been closed. (There is a post about it.)

Now, two more: (the information is on the Temples website)

Brugge Branch discontinued.
Antwerp Belgium Stake May 20 at 11:08 pm

Kortrijk Branch discontinued.
Antwerp Belgium Stake



I lived in Belgium for a while, but I never even had the curiosity of going to church there. It is just fun to watch it crumbling down. LOL

Good news. Thanks for spreading the good word.

Suzy Lee Wrote:
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> A few weeks ago, four units of the Antwerp Belgium
> Stake had been closed. (There is a post about
> it.)
>

Last month they basically closed every Dutch-speaking place in Belgium west of the corridor Antwerpen-Brussel (including one across the border in Holland).
The two they close now are everything east of that line except Gent.

So now Mormons in Belgium have three places left: Antwerp(en), Brussel(s) and G(h)ent.
They may have some places left in French-speaking Wallonia, but that is so rural I doubt it.

Picture this: twenty-five years ago, the Dutch-speaking northern half of Belgium had TWO own missions.
Today it is part of one mission together with the rest of the country, The Netherlands AND Letzebürg!

The LDS church likely maintains that this is due to "maturity" of the church in the area. That's what they maintained when closing the mission in Sicily and regional units.

Is "maturity" the last step before "dead"?

Hadn't thought of it that way.

Apparently there is still the St Niklaas Ward (Besides Antwerp and Ghent.)

But it still VERY little for Flanders. Three wards for 6 million people...

I was just curious, and checked the webside of Jehovah's Witnessses. They have DOZENS of congregations all over Flanders.

So it's not just a matter of "godless" Europeans. The LDS cult is simply doing a bad job marketing their product.

I know dozens of African churches in Antwerp alone. Well, the suburbs of Antwerp, but still within a 10 km radius.

Getting non-immigrants to any church is near impossible, though. Europeans only convert to a religion for love. When the wedding ends, the faith goes with it and the kids are no longer enrolled in religious classes.

I grew up in Belgium. We were always on the road for my parents' branch and district callings. Sometimes when I think back of those times, I see endless rows of street lanterns passing by the car window.

I know every nook and cranny of those old church buildings, playing in them by myself for hours and hours on Saturdays and Sundays. This was when priesthood was in the morning and sac meeting in the evening, so if we traveled from one end of the country to the other, we'd hang in church between services. Sometimes we'd get invited by the locals for lunch, but I also remember a lot of hunger.

Hunger and boredom.

It's good to know these branches are closed. I'd like to tear each of them down with a wrecking ball, like that scene in Forrest Gump.

Damn, I was just going to post a brief comment. Guess it still runs deep after all those years...

rt Wrote:
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> I grew up in Belgium. We were always on the road
> for my parents' branch and district callings.
> Sometimes when I think back of those times, I see
> endless rows of street lanterns passing by the car
> window.

You've described the most unique characteristic of Belgium pretty well.
All those overlit freeways.

Contrary to popular belief, the Great Wall of China is not visible from the moon, but Belgium by night is.
Thanks to all those highways full of oversized spotlights every 250 feet.

Where in Belgium did you live?

Visitors Welcome Wrote:
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> Where in Belgium did you live?

Limburg

Stupid Flanders.

My uncle was MP in Belgium years ago....I wonder if this news has reached him. It would be sad to devote your mission years, then 3 more years as MP only to see it all shrvel away later.

Oh my goodness! Oh me! Oh my!