Thousands of churches face wrecking ball

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This article was published 06/04/2019 (2468 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Last fall, I spent two enjoyable days in a church — but I didn’t go there for worship services.

I was attending a conference in Ottawa’s allsaints event space, located in the former All Saints Anglican Church.

The All Saints church, a stately grey brick building, has been a fixture of Ottawa’s Sandy Hill neighbourhood since 1899. Over its lifetime, it has hosted a royal wedding and the funeral of a prime minister.

But by 2014, the dwindling congregation closed the building and merged with another church.

The historic building faced an uncertain future. But a local group came to the rescue, buying it for $1.52 million.

“We worked with the community to repurpose it,” Leanne Moussa, president of allsaints Development Inc., says of how the building became a popular venue for weddings, funerals, parties, conferences, theatre, concerts and other events.

The building is also rented by a couple of groups for worship services; for a short time, it was also home to a Muslim congregation.

The process of turning it into an event space wasn’t easy or cheap, Moussa says, noting they “put a lot of money into it.” This included a modern heating and cooling system.

Despite the cost, “we’re excited about what we were able to do,” she says.

All Saints was saved, but the future is uncertain for as many as 9,000 other places of worship in Canada.

That’s how many are in danger of being closed and demolished in the next 10 years, according to the National Trust for Canada, a non-profit group dedicated to preserving historic buildings in this country.

“It’s a trend we’ve been noticing for the last few years,” says Robert Pajot, regeneration project leader with the National Trust.

“It seems to be progressing rather quickly now.”

Altogether, there are about 27,600 places of worship in Canada, according to a report from Natural Resources Canada. The trust estimates 30 per cent of them are in danger of demolition.

About 6,670 of those places of worship are found on the Prairies, which would mean about 2,000 could be demolished.

Here in Manitoba, there’s “no one-stop shop” showing how many places of worship are in the province, or how many are in danger, says Cindy Tugwell, executive director of Heritage Winnipeg.

She agrees with the trust that situation here is also “dire.”

“The funding isn’t there” to preserve historic churches, she says, noting that provincial heritage grants haven’t increased in 25 years.

With only $215,000 a year available for the entire province, it “doesn’t go very far,” she says. “It might be able to preserve one stained-glass window.”

In Winnipeg, there is more money available through the Gail Parvin Hammerquist Fund, which provides up to $50,000 per group for conservation projects.

For Tugwell, saving historic worship spaces is important since they “provide social connectivity, a place of community, are community hubs.”

“Not all can be saved,” she says, “but we need to try to protect them.”

Natalie Bull, executive director of the National Trust, agrees.

“I’m under no illusion we can actually turn the tide,” she says.

“Thousands of these buildings are doomed.”

But she hopes denominations, congregations, governments and heritage groups will start working together to save some of this “species at risk.”

“My hope is that faith groups and their communities will do our very best to make wise use of these sacred spaces that we’ve inherited from the past,” she says.

That’s what’s happening in Calgary, where that city’s Inter-Mennonite Church has turned its building into an events space called Theatre 1308.

According to general manager Graham Neumann, the congregation of about 50-60 people began talking three years ago about how to make better use of its 1960s-era building.

“We felt space was underutilized; it sat empty six days a week,” he says.

At the same time, the north Calgary neighbourhood where the church is located was revitalizing, with trendy restaurants and shops starting up.

“We wanted to be part of that,” he adds, noting the congregation still meets in the building on Sundays.

Although one goal is to serve the arts community, renting the space also helps with upkeep and maintenance.

“It spreads the costs of running the building further,” says Neumann, adding it can be a way to save the building in the future if the congregation declines.

So that’s two buildings saved. Only 8,998 more to go.

faith@freepress.mb.ca

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