Covenant United Presbyterian Church has been sold to a LLC. Butler Eagle file photo

Covenant United Presbyterian Church has been sold to a company called 230 E. Jefferson LLC — which is also the church’s address — for $265,000.

The Rev. John C.R. Silbert, the church’s pastor since February 2018, said selling the building was a necessary move to keep the congregation alive, because attendance has shrunk in recent years.

“We've been in that space for 210 years,” Silbert said. “We were very happy in that space in terms of history, but it got too big for us. We’re just not in that old building, that's all, but we continue as if we are.”

The Covenant United Presbyterian Church has been having services at 11 a.m. every Sunday in the old sanctuary of Trinity Presbyterian Church, which Silbert said is a sister church that has a differing worship style.

Right before Covenant has its service at 11 a.m., Trinity has its service at 10 a.m. in the newer church area, according to Silbert.

“It is not a merger, what it is is our congregation is nesting in that church, but we continue to be who we are,” Silbert said. “Trinity is more of a contemporary service; we are a bit more formal and a little more traditional.”

Silbert said he does not know what the church building’s new owner has planned for the space. The money from the sale is going toward Covenant’s continuance, Silbert added.

In the meantime, the church’s congregation has been adjusting well to the new space.

“It has been a good transition, folks have been positive about it,” Silbert said. “The church is the people. It always has been.”