What is the Church?? The historically venerable and Beautiful structures are, however, not the essential part... The core and essential element is the individual Believer within his Family, and in the Extended Family, -- the Parish!... Christ teaches: "Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there I am in their midst!"... And thus, Orthodox clergy in greeting one another exchange the threefold "Kiss of Peace", not some mere handshake but an actual Kiss, as anciently was done between believers, -- and is proper even now amongst Layfolk... In exchanigng the Kiss of Peace clergy proclaim: "Christ is in Our Midst!" to which is replied: "He is and He shalt be!"...
2020 was not a good year for churches. 2021 is not shaping up to be much better. The choices churches have made and continue to make concerning litmus tests and birdemic agenda issues have not done them any favors in the eyes of serious Christians. As a result, some of these Christians may be contemplating the validity of Christianity altogether.
To anyone in that position, I can only say the following - do not fall into the trap of interpreting church closures and the continuing corruption of Christian institutions as a purely negative event in the further development of Christianity.
After all, the churches in the System are no longer churches in the proper sense of the word anyway. Think about it. How many can confidently declare that Christ to be in their midst?
To paraphrase something else Fr. Steve mentioned in his comment, the antinomy concerning churches may in fact be a blessing. The time has come to soberly consider what Divine intelligence is communicating to us amidst all of this.
You are now the church; you and your family are now the church; your family and other families you love and can trust are now the church. That is how it all began; that is now where we need to be; that is how Christianity moves forward from here.
And if you are a solitary Christian without family or community, take heart; the Holy Spirit is accessible to every individual. Christ is in the midst and shalt be in the midst of the solitary as well. Far better alone with Christ than in a community without Christ.
Note added: Fr. Steve maintains an excellent Berdyaev website (see side bar), which I highly recommend. He has also translated many of Nikolai Berdyaev's books - some of these translations are available here.