The Hyndsville United Methodist Church has been notified by the Upper New York Conference that its doors will be locked on or before September 30.
This after the church voted in July not to accept the Conference's offer of a reprieve.
Members of the Hyndsville UMC's board planned to meet tonight, Wednesday, to decide on their next step; Peggy Himes, one of the board members, said it could well be returning to Methodists' Wesleyan roots and meeting in members' homes.
Of the four churches targeted for closure by the Conference-Hyndsville, Warnerville, Mineral Springs, and Dorloo-just Hyndsville and Warnerville were offered a chance to address "shortcomings" and remain open, and only Warnerville took the Conference up on the offer.
The list of benchmarks the Conference has established for Warnerville spans three pages and one of the conditions is that members of the congregation no longer talk to the press or write letters to the editor.
Hyndsville voted not to accept the reprieve, largely because church members were afraid the conditions would be stacked against success.
All four of the targeted churches have been operating in the black and anything left in their bank accounts when they close will go to the Conference, which has maintained the church buildings also belong to the Conference and could be repurposed for other Conference uses.
Ms. Himes said the Hyndsville church has stopped taking its weekly collection.
"Whatever we decide Wednesday, we'll still be a church," she said.
"A church is its people-not a building."