Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space

"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Friday, October 23, 2015

Reprint: Churches, community, religion and change

This piece originally ran on October 14th, 2012.

Churches and bike lanes.  It's being reprinted in honor of how some DC churches are claiming religious freedom violations because of plans to put bike lanes in front of their churches ("Pastors: 6th Street Bike Lanes A ‘Cancer’ That Will Destroy Church," Washington City Paper; "Can some big D.C. churches fight off a bike lane?," Washington Post.

Note in the past DDOT didn't put a bike lane on the 1500 block of M Street NW because of complaints by the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church on that block ("How a downtown bike lane has become a political headache," Washington Post, 2013).

The reality is that there are plenty of churches in the city located next to bike lanes and plenty of churches in other cities located along streetcar and light rail lines.

Only by believing that your place in the city is completely unique and exceptional and incomparable to any other place in the city or the world can these anti-change positions be sustained.

I am not happy when I ride by New Southern Rock Baptist Church on Kansas Avenue NW and they have cars parked in the bike lane on a Sunday or during a funeral. But it's a lot better to divert around the parked cars than to not have access to it the other 160 or so hours in a week, when the church building is mostly empty.

Churches and homeless services/property warehousing.  The comment thread on the original post has some interesting points.  Charlie wrote:
What I found interesting about the Atlantic article, and a lot of DC talk about black churches, is how much it replicates how settlers in the west talked about the Indians and the need for removal. The existence of the churches is a real threat for the search for authenticity.

One thing you left out is the tendency of churches to offer homeless services in the city, and how that really manages to shit on the local neighborhood. That needs to be regulated and banned.

As I see it, the real problem is the warehousing aspect. Churches want to expand, and use their tax exempt status to do so. (Others are using it as a way to turn themselves into real estate developers). This isn't an isolated issue: The Cleveland Clinic ran down its local neighborhood in order to have cheap real estate to expand.
Churches and historic preservation: graven images and RLUIPA.  And in the intervening years there was an interesting holding by the Mayor's Agent concerning a church that bought an existing church in the Capitol Hill Historic District, but because their brand of religion doesn't hold for graven images, they wanted to remove the stained glass windows.

I figured they'd win based on the RLUIPA law, but in another example of the fact that I don't have legal training, the holding stated that the purchasers knew going in that the building was in a historic district and therefore that the changes they proposed were likely not to be approved.  That out of the doctrine "all citizens are presumed to know the law," that they had no reasonable expectation that their religious position in and of itself would otherwise trump existing law.

Inekon-built streetcar in Portland, Oregon, USA, on the Portland Streetcar system.  Train is stopped at SW 11th and Clay with The Old Church on the right.

Churches and streetcars.  And speaking of churches and anti-urban attitudes toward transportation, not that long ago a church at 11th and K Streets NW claimed that building a streetcar line next to the church would impinge on their religious practice also.

I wrote about that in December 2014, "The co-existence of streetcars and churches elsewhere ought to counter anti-streetcar arguments by churches in DC today."

Like with churches and bike lanes, there are probably thousands of examples of churches around the world located next to streetcar or light rail lines.

Valorizing property value in new church-mixed use construction projects.  In Dupont Circle, residents have been fighting a church's proposal to rebuild their church and pay for it partly by having part of the site developed for market rate housing ("New Design Released for Dupont Circle Church Development," UrbanTurf).

While I don't think the new building as proposed is particularly attractive, I can't criticize the church for being focused on how to remain relevant in the 21st century and how to pay for their operations going forward, given the fact that many urban denominations find that their membership is shrinking, members are increasingly not located within the neighborhood, social and community service demands are increasing, revenues are decreasing, and costs are rising.

On the 900 block of F Street NW and at the intersection of Wayne Avenue and Fenton Street in Silver Spring ("First Baptist Church Demolition Underway in Silver Spring," Bethesda Magazine), church sites have been or are being redeveloped as mixed use office or residential buildings, but in each case the church function has been or will be maintained on the site, as a part of the new building.

I will say it can be a shame to lose the distinctive architecture style and aesthetic qualities of church buildings that were constructed long ago which are replaced by the homogeneous building designs of today.

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Churches, community, religion and change

I do love church architecture and stained glass windows (not exclusively religious of course), but because I am somewhere between agnostic and atheist, perhaps too often I discount the role of religion in society generally as well as locally.

Of course, religious communities and their churches and related institutions (charities, monasteries, convents, colleges, etc.) are involved in many aspects of communities, urban and suburban and rural, which make them worth paying attention to, including such issues as:

• their roles in community and building community;

• their participation, directly or indirectly, in ocal politics (ministers and churches can be the backbone of support for particular politicians);

• the issue of the church and society, the First Amendment, separation of church and state, and the pernicious rise of  the application of religion to all sorts of public activities (e.g., "Putnam courthouse could display 'In God We Trust'" from the Nashville Tennessean);

• their participation in community stabilization and redevelopment--some churches such as Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and Bethel New Life in Chicago, and the Catholic Church affiliated Famicos Foundation housing development organization in Cleveland, among others, have very well respected community development arms (although some once well-respected church community development arms have also degraded, see "Floyd Flake ripped over condition of buildings run by his church" from the New York Post);

• and in community destabilization, by warehousing urban properties (Shiloh Baptist Church in Shaw is well known for amassing properties and letting them moulder but they are hardly the only church that does so, see ""Losing my religion: Shiloh Baptist Church and Neighborhood Destabilization" from 2005)--I argue that churches may believe that improving a neighborhood is a bad thing, because by improving property values, it becomes more difficult to continue to acquire nearby properties;

• the parking issue--because as church membership becomes disconnected from the neighborhood where the church is located, people drive in to worship and need somewhere to leave their cars--actually I am fine with Sunday double-parking as opposed to demolishing buildings and converting the land to parking lots used a handful of hours/week and believe that churches should have to create transportation demand management plans (see the blog entries, "Even a church can do transportation demand management planning" and "Megachurch parking ministries set standard for church transportation demand management");

• church-related historic preservation and land use issues and the RLUIPA Act (see "Building regulations (including historic preservation), religious freedom, and local and federal laws" and "Be careful what you wish for/religious freedom/RLUIPA"), which many churches use in an attempt to privilege the way they wish to use property and avoid local regulations--in DC, there are frequent calls to give churches an exception from historic preservation laws, which is ironic because it was a church's demolition of houses for parking in Capitol Hill that spurred the creation of local historic preservation law;

• including the opposition by people with more traditional beliefs to the establishment of new faith communities, especially in the post-9/11 environment, to Islamic churches (e.g., "Planned Mosque Inches Along, but Critics Remain" from the New York Times);

• and vice versa, the belief by some faith traditions, usually the most orthodox, that freedom of speech provisions should not be applicable to the interpretation of their religion by others;

• church closure, relocation, and the counter-response of the creation of new types of religious communities that are a-denominational (although for a First World country, the US has the highest rates in the world of people who declare a religious faith).

Church closure and relocation in the face of demographic change

It is the latter to which the rest of this blog entry is directed, in response to an article in The Atlantic blog, "In Changing Neighborhoods, Black Churches Face an Identity Crisis," in part about the H Street neighborhood.

The article is interesting only because it employs an incredibly limited, a-historical time frame that ignores the last 100+ years of urban history.

Church location used to be tightly linked to ethnic/racial communities living in particular neighborhoods

Historically, particular churches and faiths were tightly associated with particular ethnic and racial groups, and people of the same ethnicity and/or race tended to live in the same places and neighborhoods, for various reasons including income, immigration patterns, segregation, or other forms of discrimination.

As a result, churches were very tightly linked to particular communities, and a "Little Italy" was likely to be dominated by the Catholic Church, Jewish neighborhoods by synagogues, German communities had Lutheran churches, etc.
 
Today's black churches in changing inner city neighborhoods are not the first churches to be buffeted by demographic change.

And in DC at least, "black" churches have been responding, for better or worse, to black middle class outmigration from the center city for decades anyway (for example, the Nineteenth Baptist Church is located on 16th Street NW, as it moved to follow and better serve its relocating members, as Ward 4 became home to the city's largest concentration of middle-class African Americans), and many of the city's black churches have relocated to the suburbs, generally Prince George's County, following their parishioners, not unlike how at one time, retailers left the city for the suburbs, in pursuit of their relocating customers.

Relocation to where members live makes sense too, if you want to play a prominent role in civic affairs and local elections.

Chromolithograph of the St. Stanislaus Kostka (Polish Catholic) Church, 1891.  

Yet, these kinds of issues cross racial, ethnic, neighborhood, and denominational boundaries, and have for decades.

For example, declining membership has led Catholic dioceses to close churches (and their associated schools), in the face of significant opposition ("Church and School Cuts Anger Catholics in Philadelphia" from the New York Times), in cities across the country including DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Milwaukee.

For example, when Pittsburgh's steel mills were booming and immigration was high, the Strip District had four very large Catholic churches, each serving different ethnicities and languages, such as Polish or Czech.  Today, one of these churches, St. Stanislaus Kostka Church, once supported by over 7,000 families, now has fewer than 500 families as members, and has merged in part with St. Patrick's, sharing a priest and other functions, while other churches have closed.

Urban demographic change has often meant change to the buildings where people prayed


As neighborhoods changed in the cities--and the first form of "outmigration" from cities was from the core of the city to neighborhoods still in the city but outside of the core, typically neighborhoods developed and served by streetcar companies--their churches and temples followed them into new buildings in their new neighborhoods, and the old churches were sold to different religious faiths.

For example the church at 8th and I Streets NW in Downtown DC was once a synagogue--and before it was a synagogue, the building was a Methodist Church, although eventually the Washington Hebrew Congregation demolished it and built the religious building that still stands today.  To make the former Methodist church more "Jewish" they "add[ed] a depiction of the Ten Commandments and Stars of David to the apex."

This process continues.  Recently a church in Orange County, California converted to a mosque.  See "Catholic church converts to Islamic mosque" from the Orange County Register.  And the once closed synagogue at 6th and I Streets NW was converted into a church of another faith, and a few years ago was reopened as a facility to serve the community and people of the Jewish faith both, but not as a traditional temple ("Sixth & I Historic Synagogue" from Washington Jewish Week), and a conservative church bought a church on Capitol Hill and wants to rip out its stained glass windows because the church doesn't believe in "graven images" ("Broken Windows Theory" from the Washington City Paper), etc.

Suburban out-migration and center city population loss significantly impacted traditional churches

As long as cities maintained population and as long as religion was important to people in the way they organized their lives, there was enough demand so that old church buildings could be sold to different religious faiths more in tune with new populations.

 As population dropped in center cities, churches lost membership, some to the point where they had to close, leaving buildings empty without demand for purchase from other church organizations. (Of course, this is now a problem in rural communities as well.  See the webpage "Educating Ourselves About Rural Church Preservation" from Sacred Places.)

This church building at 9th and D Streets SE on Capitol Hill was converted into 18 condominium units in 1989.

It wasn't until after World War II when housing choice (and incomes) expanded greatly and in forming new, mostly suburban, neighborhoods and choosing where to live, people bought houses without considering ethnic and religious ties (although there is no question that in certain faiths, such as Judaism in both Baltimore and Detroit, there is a religiously influenced geographic pattern to the migration outward from the center city that is clearly discernible).

And of course the parking issue is related to the fact that churches no longer primarily serve members in the neighborhood who walk to services.  (Orthodox Jews are an exception of course.  Religious laws restrict the use of mechanical equipment, including cars, on the Sabbath, so adherents tend to cluster in particular neighborhoods close to their temples, within walking distance.) 

 
Image of Pittsburgh's former St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, now the Church Brew Works, from the Pittsburgh Eats blog.

But as population shrunk, incomes dropped, and even as religious practices changed (the rise of Pentecostalism and storefront churches), the demand for large, grand (and expensive to maintain) church buildings declined. 

Besides reuse of the buildings for other types of institutions and agency, or as housing, churches have been converted into night clubs or brew pubs (the creation of the Church Brew Works in Pittsburgh led the Archdiocese of Milwaukee to put a clause in its sales agreements for church buildings to forbid certain uses).

Changing communities: some churches reposition and maintain their position, space, and place

Sojourners Magazine serves the Christian social justice movement.

Churches changing in response to changing communities is not new, especially in relationship to the increased prominence of social justice concerns as more people turned their spiritual focus outwards.

One example (and hardly the only one) is how in Washington, DC, Luther Place Memorial Church on Thomas Circle at 14th Street NW refocused their programs on inner city, poverty and other social justice concerns, in turn attracting new members who supported the church in its efforts to refocus its mission outwards toward active, engaged community service (the Church now has multiple programs, including housing, that are probably amongst the best in the city).

As immigrant populations change urban neighborhoods, other churches have changed as well, adding services in different languages, such as Spanish, and adapting outreach and community service programs to be responsive to new demands. Certainly this has been the case in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, which is the center of DC's Latino population.

And the increase in the number of Unitarian-Universalist Churches in urban locations in the 1960s and 1970s was another response to people looking to join with others in worship, community service, and fellowship, without necessarily being bound in the same way with ethnicities and neighborhoods.  For example, DC's Washington Ethical Society, Unitarian-Universalist affiliated:

is a humanistic religious community, without formal creed or dogma, united in the belief that the greatest moral and spiritual values are to be found through raising the quality of human relationships.

Certainly, rise of progressive and social justice practices in the Catholic Church (liberation theology, Nuns on the Bus, etc.) and the Episcopal Church (such as the appointment of women and gays as priests and bishops) continues to spark tensions between conservative and liberal factions, even to the point where some churches are breaking off and leaving the mother church.

Another response by churches has been to organize across religions through the creation of ecumenical organizations that link churches and their missions towards working together on a variety of social justice goals.

DC's Downtown Cluster of Congregations and the Capitol Hill Group Ministries are local examples.  (Although I will argue that these kinds of organizations can also devolve into typical special interest groups focused on their own needs to the exclusion of others, at least when it comes to church parking matters...)

The rise of the new church: non-denominational churches as a new response to serve diverse communities

While we can't ignore the reality that churches and organizations espousing traditional religious interpretations continue to open in the city to serve audiences new to the city, often using non-church buildings (storefronts, other buildings), in part because such buildings are much less expensive than a large traditional church building, social and community changes concomitant with the continued development of the post-industrial society, mean that traditional definitions of ethnicity are no longer the dominant way many people to choose to define themselves, leading to weak religious ties with traditional forms of religious practices.

In response, religious practice and organization has been changing and adapting to serve these new communities.  And, there are many organizations and a growing body of literature that addresses the issue of how churches and religious denominations need to change to serve new and different populations.

Plus, considering how much I write about civil society, community building, civic engagement, etc., it would be a mistake to ignore church community building as an element of this and community organizing more generally, especially in terms of the success of the megachurch and other forms of non-denominational churches in creating racially and economically diverse congregations that connect people over broad geographies.

New age spirituality.   New age spiritualism and offshoots of traditional religion (kabbalah) and older practices (Wiccan) has been one response, but typically that hasn't been associated with in-city practices.  Instead it is more likely to be associated with the out-of-doors, communes, and in natural landscapes ("The New Age in Sedona, Arizona" from the New York Times travel section).

Megachurches.  While we think of megachurches as "suburban," it's probably more accurate to think of them as churches that operate on a metropolitan scale where their membership base isn't circumscribed by or limited to a particular neighborhood or geography.

Left: Houston's 16,800-seat Lakewood Church Central Campus, home to four English language services and two Spanish language services per week, is located at the former Compaq Center.  Wikipedia image.

The car allows the megachurch to create spiritual communities in places where people otherwise feel disconnected and where traditional religious denominations may not be adequately serving their needs, by drawing upon the automobile-enabled across an entire metropolitan area rather than limiting themselves to a particular neighborhood or district or single jurisdiction. 

See "Megachurches As Minitowns" and "Megachurches Add Local Economy to Their Mission" from the New York Times.   Megachurches serve metropolitan communities connected by the car.

Televangelism.  While we may think of megachurches as a recent phenomenon, I think it's more accurate to think of it as the second generation of this phenomenon, which started first with the rise of the televised ministry ("televangelism") in the 1960s and 1970s and the teleministry's associated church and related facilities (Jim and Tammie Lee Baker, Pat Robertson and the 700 Club, Oral Roberts, Robert Schuller in Orange County).

(Then again, you had the radio ministers in the 1930s and 1940s, people like Father Coughlin of the Shrine of the Little Flower Parish in suburban Detroit's Royal Oak--Father Coughlin was the scourge of FDR and was only suppressed through a deal that FDR made with the Vatican to recognize the Church as a city-state and appoint an ambassador to the Vatican.)

MCC serving the LGBT community.  The Metropolitan Community Church formed in the late 1960s to serve lesbians and gays in response to the rejection of homosexuality by most traditional religious denominations.

LGBT status by definition transcends race or ethnicity and so MCC churches, like Unitarian churches, tend to have more diverse memberships compared to ethnically- and race-bound traditional churches.  Because MCC adherents came out of traditional faiths, the Church tends to be more formal in their religious traditions, while being more expansive and unbiased in terms of membership and to whom services and rites are provided.

Non-denominational churches.  Like megachurches, but not nearly as large as the arena-sized congregations that exist in Dallas and Atlanta, non-denominational churches have been created in center cities to serve populations that are younger and newer to the community, connecting diverse peoples looking for spiritual connection, and who are less interested in worshiping within more traditional ethnic and/or racial boundaries or their neighborhoods, instead creating racially and/or ethnically diverse faith communities that cross neighborhood and sector boundaries, drawing its membership from across an entire city (and beyond).

DC's National Community Church as a multi-site urban-sized megachurch.  DC has a good example in the "Theater Church," now called the National Community Church, which first started by holding worship services on Sunday mornings when the theaters at Union Station weren't showing movies.

Ebenezer's Coffee Shop, 2nd & F 
Streets NE, DCI have long thought this church was interesting, because they didn't have a building.  (See "Building a churchless megachurch" from the Washington Post).

And you could argue that it was a form of "mixed primary use," by using a "hall," in this case a cinema, in a nontraditional and time- and space-efficient manner.

But I just wasn't looking at their operations as closely as I could have, because likely, physical manifest destiny was always part of the plan.

Just like how food trucks can be a way to "build up" to a bricks and mortar location, the same kind of path was forged by the National Community Church--they are not a "megachurch" in one location but a "multi-site" church serving multiple communities with favorable economic demographics.

First, they expanded services from Union Station in DC to other theater locations in the metropolitan area, not limiting their operation or "service area" to DC proper.

Ebenezer's Coffee Shop, 2nd & F Streets NE, DCSecond, they created the Ebenezer's Coffee House on 2nd Street NE near Union Station--with a hall suitable for religious services in the basement and offices on the second floor above the coffee house, although with a bit of puffery (see the past blog entry "Ebenezer's Coffee Shop and a bit of truth stretching") as they claimed the building they had rehabilitated had been a drug house, which was not the case.

Right: the basement hall at Ebenezers Coffee House.

This gave them offices, space that they controlled, and a way to have physical presence outside of the Sunday morning hours. 

And currently they have expanded into a building, (I don't want to call it "third" because I imagine that they will continue to expand into physical buildings, most likely not typical church buildings), through the acquisition of the old People's Church on 8th Street SE in the Barracks Row neighborhood of Capitol Hill ("National Community Church Pouring Serious Money into Barracks Row" from the Washington City Paper  and "Century-old movie theater in Capitol Hill to reopen as the Miracle" from the Washington Post).

They are restoring the theater function of the building, and will show movies and such outside of church hours.

Interestingly, the restoration of these buildings does illustrate an interesting element of nonprofit business activity.  I don't know if the buildings are exempt from local property taxes, because they are owned by a church.

In any case, the income from the cafe or operations as a movie theater would be taxable (it's unrelated business income from the standpoint of a church.  But not having to operate the businesses strictly on a for profit revenue basis allows them to spend more money and create "grander" facilities than is likely for a tax paying business.

Conclusion

There is a lot more going on in the city with regard to religion, religious practices, and community and spiritual development than you would ever imagine if all you do is limit your consideration of religion and the city to the last couple of years of demographic change.

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47 Comments:

At 1:40 AM, Blogger Chrigid said...

I think it's ridiculous for churches to claim that public transportation on their streets is an infringement on their religious freedom, but a bike lane is something else: how do you handle weddings and funerals, processions and festivals with a bike lane right up against the sidewalk. Right now I'm imagining a bike mowing down a bride as she alights from a limousine, a bike crashing through a coffin on its way to a hearse...

 
At 11:57 AM, Anonymous charlie said...

Well I'll stand by my previous comment, but the last two days at GGW also demonstrate:

1. The continued strong hostility towards black churches, which in language ins't that difference than what people said about the "civilized" Indians in the 1800s.

2. Tremendous amount of white guilt which makes the discussion popcorn worthy, but also hides the issues.

3. The continuing weakness of "biking" as a self-identifitied political animal. It is a useful signaling device but not ones that inspires deep political commitment.

Bike lanes are a zero sum game. Someone is going to lose. How can we structure the game so it less zero sum?

I'm far more annoyed with delivery trucks, hotel valet, valet parking in general, and potholes on bike lanes than the black church goers.

 
At 12:46 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

public transit (dedicated transit ways) and bike lanes are "zero sum" vs. parking.

The thing is that with scarce ROW, you have to make choices.

That's why I always focus on optimality. I don't hate cars (even if I act like it), it's just that expecting everyone to drive doesn't work for cities in terms of congestion, mobility, etc.

That being said, the best way to make it less zero sum is to be "accommodating" for special needs, to wit, Sunday parking for churches.

Like I said in the post, I'd rather allow double parking, special parking (e.g. angle parking) even parking on Sundays in bike lanes, etc. rather than encourage demolition of property for parking lots or to encourage opposition to bike lanes.

But there is no question that "bike lanes" are a signaling device in terms of "changing times."

In this area, more white men and increasingly women are biking than are African-Americans, and definitely not African-Americans that typify the middle class/govt. workers grouping present here, and older people.

While biking tends to be a phenomenon of younger people, it's not uncommon to see white people my age and older biking, and it's very rare to see African Americans my age or older biking.*

It's still pretty rare to see African-Americans biking, groups like "Black Women Bike" notwithstanding. I rarely see non-whites on bike share bikes.

You know that Tom Toles cartoon I frequently reprint, about outmigration and then whites retaking the city.

In "Commerz in the 'hood" in 2006 I wrote about how the embrace of the concept of moving back to the city/living in the city lagged among African Americans, which is what fueled outmigration and PG County becoming a black majority county, and then around the same time, Charles County (people moving not from DC but from PGC) became Democratic and if not Black majority, black preponderance.

In 2005 I also wrote about what I called the Uncivil War and the election of Vincent Gray, Kwame Brown, and Harry Thomas as a kind of counterrevolution to the demographic changes that had been occurring.

http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/2005/07/tom-sherwood-duncan-spencer-anwar-amal.html

Harry Thomas suggested there be tax breaks for gas stations, because gas station sites were being redeveloped.

Kwame Brown proposed a toll on the 14th St. bridge.

 
At 12:53 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

* I applied for a bike planning job in PG County -- sadly I didn't even make it out of the basic HR review, despite my having produced a highly regarded plan in Baltimore County and having great references-- and around when I applied, they had a public planning meeting for the Central Corridor Trail to parallel the blue line stations in the county.

(Note though this was a meeting by the planning dept. and the job I applied for was with Public Works and Transportation.)

It was at a church near the Addison Road station.

I don't remember the exact demographic breakdown but virtually everyone there was black, and older. Well, there was a mix of younger and older.

There was also a good number of people, between 100 and 125, which is pretty large for a biking related meeting.

Anyway, compared to DC meetings of this type, I WAS AMAZED AT HOW CIVIL THE MEETING WAS and how most people were supportive of the trail as a shared use path, connecting stations, and as a way to encourage more healthy physical activity in a place with high rates of obesity and health issues.

There were a couple "narrow minded/parochial people" at my table, but also people equally awesome. The women tended to be more favorable than the men.

Interestingly, the chief of the planning section, running the meeting, used to be in charge of the ward transportation planners in DC (Vanessa Atkins?).

 
At 12:58 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

wrt hostility to black churches, I don't have much insight. Is it anti-religion more generally, agism, old vs. new, etc.

I lived across the street from a black church when I lived on 6th St. NE and I didn't have much problem with them.

OTOH, the church around the block, discussed in this entry, I thought was a force for land warehousing and neighborhood deterioration, not unlike Shiloh Church and many others.

Many black churches have fought changes related to the demographic changes. (E.g., the whole debacle of Vegetate and other new places trying to open on 9th St. NW in Shaw, being opposed by black churches).

In my area now, the neighborhood is changing, I don't think the churches are, but it doesn't really matter much. The churches aren't particularly active, and the demographic changes that are occurring probably don't bother them that much.

I don't have a good sense what their membership is like.

E.g., around on the other side of the block is a black Mennonite Church. I see virtually no activity there.

And it happens that I don't go by the places where other churches are, with the exception of storefront type churches closer in to Takoma Park.

 
At 1:23 PM, Anonymous charlie said...

Here is the positive news, if you read recent crime reports use of bicycles is getting very popular!

And yes, your suggestions on turning it less into a zero-sum game is exactly what I was alluding too. If you turn it into a raw political contest, the "bikers" aren't going to win.

I have zero problems with the church parking on the M st bike lane. Construction, well, that is making it impossible to use.

 
At 4:53 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

... I noticed that too (about the crime-related use of bikes).

But yeah, in terms of change it's all about transitions.

My general experience is most of the time, for all the "sky is falling" talk about stuff in neighborhoods, afterwards, for the most part, when the whatever is in place, life goes one with minimal disruptions and negative impacts.

So the point is to figure out how to get through the sky is falling phase.

e.g., I couldn't go because I had a prior commitment but there was a ward 4 ride today with WABA and CM Todd.

In my writings on bike planning, I recommend this kind of activity all the time.

Rather than all city rides for the committed (like the Bike DC thing), I'd rather focus on building bridges ward by ward, putting bike co-ops and training programs at the rec centers, doing "Open Streets" type events at the ward/ neighborhood scale and worrying less at least right now (although I'd be happy to do one on Mass. Ave. from 10th St. [the new Marriott hotel would go apesh** if the street was blocked in front of their hotel] to Dupont Circle--it wouldn't block any bus lines) about doing "city-wide" events.

 
At 9:17 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/20847747/pastors-part-ways-after-partnership-between-black-and-white-congregations-dissolves

 
At 12:04 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

CSM writes of an increase in church going by "liberals" in response to the Trump election:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2017/0414/Church-revival-More-liberals-are-filling-Protestant-pews

 
At 7:13 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Catholic church opens new church in the Seaport district of Boston.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/04/20/upon-this-street-church-built/ax7tqykrnlDQk5OSpDDX9N/story.html

 
At 10:33 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

This is from the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation e-letter:

The Economic Impact of Historic Religious Properties
Partners for Sacred Places, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit organization which focuses on building the capacity of congregations of historic sacred places to better serve communities, issued a report to determine the economic and social impact of sacred places on their communities.

Titled “The Economic Halo Effect of Historic Sacred Places,” the report showed findings from a study of over 90 congregations in Philadelphia, Chicago, and Fort Worth, Texas, and concluded that the average historic sacred place in an urban environment generates over $1.7 million annually in economic impact on the community in which it serves. That is because congregations generally employ, on average, five full-time and six part-time staff, and often purchase goods and services from a network of local small businesses and individual vendors.

The study found that about 11 percent of total visits to sacred places were for worship purposes and 89 percent of them were by those attending an event, utilizing a program of the congregation, or going to and from a school or daycare. It also found that 87 percent of the beneficiaries of the community programs and events housed in sacred places are not members of the religious congregation.

In effect, America’s sacred places are de facto community centers.

This is one of the reasons why PHLF started a Historic Religious Properties Program (HRP) in 1997 to provide grants and technical assistance to religious properties with a need for improving and restoring their historic buildings. Since then, PHLF’s grant program has led the way in Allegheny County, providing over $1.1 million in grants and technical assistance to various congregations, which has leveraged nearly $3 million in privately raised funds for restoration of historic religious properties.

 
At 12:41 PM, Anonymous Richard Layman said...

Secular Hub, Denver

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/07/16/secular-hub-denver-nontheistic-atheist-community-center/

 
At 2:29 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Interesting story in the Orange County Register about the Episcopal Church process, in Newport Beach, where the previous bishop forced out a church and was going to sell the property to a developer. Eventually that sale fell through, the bishop was forced to retire, and now the particular church congregation has the opportunity to take back the facility.

 
At 10:32 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/low-income-communities-churches/549677/

Story in the Nation about Islamic community in Detroit.

https://www.thenation.com/article/can-this-muslim-community-create-a-model-for-rebuilding-detroit/



https://www.faithandleadership.com/legacy-ministries-dying-churches-give-congregations-way-end-well

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/04/breaking-faith/517785/

 
At 9:14 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

_Beyond the Mosque: Diverse Spaces of Muslim Worship_, Riswan Mawani

 
At 8:12 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

For Churches, a temptation to sell,

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/realestate/for-churches-a-temptation-to-sell.html

Religion being pushed out of the public square

https://www.deseret.com/2019/11/16/20963546/religion-democrats-public-sphere-age-political-party

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/im-heartbroken-congregants-prepare-to-vacate-historic-church-once-attended-by-teddy-roosevelt/2019/12/08/9bb9d724-19d1-11ea-87f7-f2e91143c60d_story.html

 
At 8:48 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

"Can religion still speak to younger Americans"

WSJ, 11/16-17/19

 
At 4:59 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Megachurches continue to grow and diversify

Religion News Service, 11/2/2020

https://www.baptiststandard.com/news/faith-culture/megachurches-continue-to-grow-and-diversify/

 
At 10:11 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Some churches becoming more relevant in response to covid and restrictions on indoor gathering.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/26/church-of-england-worship-online-historic-buildings-congregations-churches

The article includes a photo of St. Margaret's Church in South London, which its worship hall set up as a food bank.

When I went to Liverpool, I went to the Liverpool Cathedral because there was an art exhibition there. (I had read about it in the then free Express newspaper, before I left.)

A few days later there was an arts and crafts fare held in the same hall during the day on Saturday and Sunday. (Sunday it must've been after services.)

It was enabled because fixed pews had never been installed. My understanding is that was a deliberate choice when the building was designed. (It was built in the 1900s.)

 
At 10:27 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.cnu.org/publicsquare/2021/04/19/new-kind-church-former-warehouse

This church rehabiiltated and redesigned a warehouse, and a former parking lot is now an outdoor space. Although it doesn't seem to be much different, although more urban, from how the suburban megachurches reproduced space like old arenas.

https://www.tampabay.com/archive/2005/07/16/former-nba-arena-now-megachurch/

 
At 2:25 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Interesting story about a Boston church in Roxbury that is shuttered. There is a dispute between the Boston-based parishioners and the mother church, based in DC. The issue has to do with the cost of renovation< which is considerable. The mother church wants to tear it down and to me that's a matter of what I call "churchly blight."

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/11/17/metro/roxbury-thorny-battle-over-vacant-black-church-disrepair

Although in Salt Lake City, the LDS Church is selling a couple church buildings, partly because the cost of earthquake-related repairs is high and likely because of declining membership within Salt Lake City proper.

https://www.sltrib.com/news/2021/11/13/future-this-historic-lds/

 
At 3:08 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Inga Saffron, the great urban design writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, writes about the new building for the St. Joseph's Church, featuring brick. She makes an interesting comment, that the church is building new and with great design, when many churches are selling buildings off.

https://www.inquirer.com/real-estate/inga-saffron/st-joseph-university-chapel-residence-jesuits-design-brick-20211208.html

"St. Joseph’s new chapel and residence speak to the power of Philly’s brick traditions"

She also makes an important point, that 100+ years ago, typically churches were the only (Maybe along with schools) architectural distinctive buildings constructed at the neighborhood scale.

"The loss has been especially painful because old religious structures are often the only buildings of architectural quality in many Philadelphia neighborhoods. Painstakingly constructed by skilled craftsmen using the finest materials, they embody the whole history of the city — its waves of immigration, the rise and fall of its industries, the births, deaths and milestones of generations. Their richly decorated facades are also works of art that both the faithful and nonbelievers can enjoy. Very few new buildings going up in Philadelphia today offer anything close to that level of visual pleasure and meaning."

 
At 7:21 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/06/08/opinion/black-church-its-cornerstone-connection-health-people/

"The Black church and its cornerstone connection to the health of a people"

But a recent Brookings Institution study found not only the highest rates of church closures per general population were in the areas with the highest percentage of Black people but also the loss of those spaces meant far more than silencing hymns and sermons. It meant the absence of crucial centers Black communities depend on for critical public health services, whether residents were part of the churches’ congregations or not. ...

Feeding those in need is just one community service Black churches have served for generations. Early in the pandemic, Black churches operated as important community health resources that provided not only testing, information, and vaccination drives but also helped allay fears and distrust about preventive care and treatment. The result: Regular Black churchgoers were more likely to be vaccinated, according to a Pew Research Center poll. That served as a vital lifeline during a pandemic that has sickened and killed Black people at higher rates. When churches closed temporarily due to pandemic mitigation orders, it left a void. Permanent closures left a major cleave.

Throughout history, the Black church has been a foundational pillar for civil rights and social justice movements, voting mobilization efforts, and more. The settings where Black people worship have also always served as the place where the community mobilized, energized, and fought for justice for all. From the founding of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832 at the African Meeting House in Boston, to Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta and headed by prominent leaders from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA).

Ransome says protecting important cultural institutions such as Black churches is vital for more than their congregations. Ensuring a more equitable nation means their survival is critical, and protecting them must be a public-policy priority.


https://www.brookings.edu/blog/how-we-rise/2022/05/03/churches-are-closing-in-predominantly-black-communities-why-public-health-officials-should-be-concerned/

"Churches are closing in predominantly Black communities – why public health officials should be concerned

 
At 1:02 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

"Seattle Archdiocese announces sweeping plan to consolidate parishes"

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-archdiocese-announces-sweeping-parish-consolidation-plan

1/22/2023

The Seattle Archdiocese is consolidating parishes in a sweeping plan that will affect virtually every Catholic Church community in Western Washington.

In Masses and vigils over the weekend from the Canada to Oregon borders, pastors announced the four-year plan to group two or more parishes together in “families” that will share one priest and one assistant priest. Some churches will likely close or be repurposed for uses such as early learning centers or homeless shelters. But how many buildings will do so — and what the family configurations will look like — is yet to be determined by a process the archdiocese says will involve its parishioners.

“We don’t expect it to be this top-down driven imposition of what these parish families will be,” said the Rev. Gary Lazzeroni, a Vancouver pastor coleading the planning effort. He acknowledged some parishioners saw previous consolidations just that way.

This plan is the latest and most wide-reaching attempt by the archdiocese to respond to an acute priest shortage and a continuing decline in Mass attendance — dropping 11% between just 2010 and 2019, to roughly 117,000. The problems have worsened over decades as the church worldwide grappled with changing religious practices, priest abuse scandals and controversies over attitudes toward women priests and same-sex marriage.

The archdiocese as a whole is financially solvent, with $16.5 million in cash and investments after accounting for debt in the 2021 fiscal year, according to its annual report. ...

But roughly two-thirds of the archdiocese’s 136 parishes operate at a deficit, excluding income from rental properties and special gifts, its leaders say. The archdiocese has 80 priests to serve them all, not counting visiting priests from around the world. In 15 years, it expects to have only about 65. ...

Everyday parishioners will get their first look at a draft in the fall, and will then have an opportunity to weigh in, partly though an online form.

“Cincinnati did this and they received 7,000-plus comments, and they made changes,” Moulding said. “We fully expect to make changes every step of the way.”

 
At 1:05 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

"35 Historic Black Churches to Receive $4 Million Investment" from National Trust for Historic Preservation. 1/16/2023

Today, as the nation commemorates the life and impact of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we are excited to announce the first class of grant recipients for the Preserving Black Churches program, a project of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund in partnership with Lilly Endowment Inc. 

https://savingplaces.org/stories/preserving-black-churches-grant-recipients-2023

 
At 1:16 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Church displaced by urban renewal.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: 'A historical moment': Bethel AME Church near deal with Penguins to return to old arena site

https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2023/01/11/bethel-ame-church-hill-district-penguins-civic-arena-wylie-crawford-land/stories/202301110088

More than six decades after it was forced off the land, Bethel AME Church could return to the former Civic Arena site as part of a proposed deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Rev. Dale B. Snyder, pastor of the Hill District church, said Wednesday that he hopes to finalize a memorandum of understanding with the team that would give Bethel AME the opportunity to develop up to 1.5 acres on the site.

“I think we’re close to an agreement. It’s just that we have to work out all of the details,” he said.

For more than a year, Rev. Snyder has been pushing the Penguins to return to the church the land it stood on from 1906 to 1957 before it was demolished to make way for the Civic Arena.

The Penguins balked, saying the property involved was partly beneath rebuilt Logan Street and partly beneath land that is designated for open space.

Under the deal being discussed, the Penguins have offered Bethel AME an alternative site of 1.5 acres at Wylie Avenue and Crawford Street – much larger than the original 13,100-square-foot church property.

While it’s a different site than that occupied by the original church, it does give the church a bigger footprint – about five times larger than the old Bethel AME property, Rev. Snyder said.

On top of the house of worship, Bethel AME, Pittsburgh’s oldest Black church, is planning to build housing, with 20% of it dedicated to low- and moderate-income families.

Describing the proposed development as “substantial,” Rev. Snyder said it would serve as a “national model for restorative justice.”

“It’s a historical moment. It’s a great win for the city of Pittsburgh,” he said.

In addition to the church and housing, the Bethel AME proposal calls for a daycare center and tutoring to help children learn to read and other skills.

 
At 5:23 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Churches as spaces, less as churches

United Church of Christ congregation in Newton, Massachusetts, that shares its space with arts and music organizations, a pediatric occupational therapy clinic, and a Jewish congregation.

https://www.2ndchurch.org/sharing-our-space

 
At 5:16 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Not exactly on point in terms of urban issues, but a reflection of how "practicing" religion is changing, and the evangelical segment is more overtly political and Christian Nationalist in its outlook, as seen in the support of the relatively immoral Donald Trump, from the Will Bunch newsletter:

These are not your father’s born-again Christians, according to the Times’ deep dive into the blending of religion and politics in the American heartland and especially Iowa, which continues its run as a highly unrepresentative kingmaker when it holds the first-in-the-nation GOP caucuses on Monday night. Many of these new evangelicals go to a physical church rarely or not at all, preferring to get their Biblical interpretations on YouTube and other sites that side-by-side also promoted Trump’s Big Lie of 2020 election fraud.

They seem to crave what churchgoers have desired for centuries: the certainty of authority, with Trump as divine retribution made flesh. The writer Tim Alberta, whose own evangelical family roots have made him an insightful analyst of modern Christian conservatism, said adherents don’t mind rallying behind the twice-divorced and mostly unchurched Trump as long as he promises to fight the modern, multicultural forces they believe are against them. Alberta told NPR that those feeling persecuted in today’s world “would gladly embrace a sort of lurch toward authoritarianism if it meant preserving what they see as a Christian America, rather than lose in a liberal democratic fashion.”

https://www.inquirer.com/columnists/attytood/mlk-day-iowa-caucus-trump-haley-white-supremacy-20240109.html

 
At 12:18 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.post-gazette.com/business/development/2023/11/14/smithfield-united-church-of-christ-pittsburgh-smithfield-street-homeless-shelter/stories/202311140050

After the closing of homeless shelter, Smithfield Street church faces a crossroads of its own

Faced with the need for extensive renovations and repairs beyond the reach of its small congregation, the church has launched a bid to survive while hoping to become a spark in reviving Smithfield Street.

“We want to stay a part of Downtown Pittsburgh. We would love to be more active and to give more,” congregation President Jeanette Thomas said.

The church that baptized H.J. Heinz has embarked on a “planning process” to ensure that the building at Smithfield Street and Strawberry Way “will be preserved and rehabilitated to continue its historic role as a key resource in the life of Downtown Pittsburgh,” officials said.

It’s reaching out to various stakeholders — including the city, the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, the state, and local foundations — to try to plot a strategy for moving forward.

The effort comes at a time when the church building, designated as a landmark by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, is facing substantial capital and repair needs. The facade has been wrapped in a protective netting since 2007 to prevent deteriorating precast concrete from breaking off and falling to the sidewalk. The building’s radiator and ventilation systems date to 1925 and the small elevator inside is not accessibility-compliant and will have to be relocated to bring it up to current standards. The roof also needs work.

... At the same time, officials see a potential partnership as a way to bring new life — and new revenue — to the building. The magnificent sanctuary, with its soaring vaulted ceiling and stunning stained glass windows, is considered “one of the acoustically finest rooms in the city,” Mr. Colburn said.

One possibility would be to team with someone to program the space for musical performances or concerts when it is not being used for worship. Another, particularly with the gym and second floor office and classroom space, could be some type of youth programming.

... She and Mr. Colburn view the church as an architectural gem that is very much worth keeping. It was designed by noted Pittsburgh architect Henry Hornbostel. The stained glass in the sanctuary portrays a mix of biblical scenes and church and Pittsburgh history.

... They also are consulting Sustainable Solutions for Sacred Sites, an organization that helps churches develop creative reuses for their buildings. And they want to include Downtown stakeholders and big players like PNC in helping determine “what the best use would be.”

Sustainable Solutions for Sacred Sites

https://www.s4program.org/

 
At 1:43 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Prince William should finish what Charles started – and sever the ridiculous ties of church and state

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/19/prince-william-charles-church-state-monarchy-anglican

The article focuses mostly on the official Church of England and says its official relationship with government should be severed.

Later the article makes interesting points about how the church is increasingly irrelevant as people decline to attend, and ways to respond.

=====
What this means for a king is one thing. What it means for the church is quite another. Its “establishment” – defended by the monarch under oath – gives it extraordinary status. It is the only British institution that is granted exclusive membership of parliament through its 26 bishops. The church has its own parliament, the General Synod, to which Westminster defers. Its wealth, overwhelmingly from property granted it by Norman and Tudor monarchs, is prodigious.

As the Anglican religion loses support, its role in national ceremonies must also decline. The church’s membership as a proportion of the British population is down to single figures and declining. It would be wise both for the monarch and the church to acknowledge this and embrace disestablishment. Gladstone mooted the possibility of the “severance” of church and state in 1885 and it returned periodically to public debate throughout the 20th century. It was a measure of the church’s (dwindling) importance that disestablishment has never been adopted.

The result is an ailing church saddled with a hierarchy of 108 bishops, a bureaucracy of 42 dioceses and thousands of medieval buildings, half of them effectively redundant, but which it is charged with maintaining. Only the great medieval cathedrals have shown some uplift, aided by their importance as oases of cultural activity across much of provincial England.

What has become desperate is the fate of parish churches. In days past, they and their surrounding grounds were hubs of neighbourhood activity and welfare. A former archbishop, George Carey, once compared them to the NHS, a sort of spiritual A&E department situated in every village and town. Not any longer. Thousands now lie dark, empty and locked, year upon year, despite often occupying a prominent position at the centre of their community.

The Church of England cannot begin to handle this awesome legacy. Other European countries have handed their historic buildings to local authorities – with taxing powers – to look after and repurpose. New uses simply must be found for England’s churches that restore some life to their communities, or they will eventually go the way of medieval castles and become piles of stone. Perhaps as he hands over the seals of office as supreme governor, King William might transfer his churches to the guardianship of the state.

 
At 6:55 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.inquirer.com/life/fishtown-holy-name-church-bells-20240123.html

A Fishtown church began ringing bells again. Not everyone is happy

Late last year, the Rev. Alfred Bradley planned a Christmastime surprise for the neighborhood he grew up in. He was bringing back the sound of church bells to Fishtown.

Thanks to two crafty volunteers and two generous families, the Holy Name of Jesus Church at Berks and Gaul Streets received a bell tower upgrade with a new electronic carillon system and big speakers. The entire project cost less than $5,000.

“It was just our attempt to, we thought in a positive way, contribute to the sound of the city and maybe bring a bit of spirituality into an urban landscape,” the priest said. The chimes began days before Christmas, ringing on the hour between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. with longer peals at noon and 6 p.m. for the Angelus prayer.

A couple weeks and 980-plus chimes later, one Fishtown resident complained on a neighborhood Facebook page: “Can someone pass along that I hate hearing the bells and it should be illegal to terrorize your neighbors with the sounds of impending doom thank you … who can I speak with that has the authority to make this stop,” the post read.

The group lit up. The post prompted nearly 1,000 comments, most voicing support for the ringing bells, and telling the original poster — a newcomer to the neighborhood — to “go back to Brooklyn,” or wherever they moved from. There were some crude insults and comparisons to Satan (the devil, reportedly, hates bells), but overall the Philly pride jumped out in a response that was fiercely protective of Holy Name, its (electronic) bells, and Fishtown’s Irish and Polish Catholic roots.

... “He seemed very entitled, like, ‘Oh they’re bothering me, so stop ringing them.’ You live in a city!” said O’Brien, laughing. “I don’t understand how five minutes in a 24-hour period would make you this upset to write to a councilman.”

“The sound of gentrification is silence,” wrote the Atlantic writer Xochitl Gonzalez in a piece about shifting demographics in Brooklyn. As Fishtown has seen an influx of wealthier residents, it may be that more people want quieter streets, even if they are within city limits.

 
At 8:10 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Storefront churches work when areas are disinvested and real estate is cheap. As commercial districts improve, these uses tend to diminish.

Nestled between barbershops and vacant buildings, storefront churches are Chicago fixtures [Chicago]

https://www.wbez.org/stories/storefront-churches-why-do-chicago-neighborhoods-have-so-many/49dd1d0b-3fb2-4006-8983-453567a46247

1/25/2024

 
At 12:34 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

'The great dechurching': Why so many Americans are leaving their churches

https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2024/01/24/the-great-dechurching-why-so-many-americans-are-leaving-their-church

That great dechurching is about 40 million Americans who've left their places of worship in the past 25 years. Many of them have done so for very deeply held spiritual reasons or maybe even personal breaks with the church that they had been attending.

But one of the major takeaways from The "Great Dechurching" book is that for most of this 40 million who left their houses of worship, it has a lot more to do with the reality of daily life than it does with any political or spiritual reckoning.

... So probably the biggest surprise that we had going into this study and coming out of it was, there were two storylines that people had. That were the overarching narratives of why people were leaving houses of worship. If your media diet leaned a little bit left, the stories were people were leaving because houses of worship have made major mistakes on things like racism, misogyny, political syncretism, clergy scandal, and clergy abuse.

And if your media diet was leaning a little bit to the right, the story there was people have left houses of worship because of secular progressivism and because of the sexual revolution. And yeah, it was a big surprise for us. The reason why people left were primarily very pedestrian reasons that seemed actually very pragmatic.

And yeah, that was a real surprise for us, to see that it looked like 30 of the 40 million people who left for very pragmatic and, frankly, boring reasons, the other two stories that were there. And certainly, there's millions of people that fit both of those stories.

... The top reason why people left, in terms of dechurching was, I moved. The number two reason overall was attendance was inconvenient. And the number three reasons was that somebody had a family change, a marriage, divorce, remarriage, or those different kinds of things. So I think that you saw that reflected in the gentleman who moved, the person who was taking care of an elderly parent.

... But again, I come back to this idea that a church has been and can be a place where that sense of community and spiritual connection is achieved. But I've heard a lot of people say one of the problems that they have is that it's contained within the bubble, within the walls of that church, that the church itself isn't serving the broader community as much as it once was. Whether it be housing assistance, food, et cetera all of the social services that you talked about Pastor Davis, they're seeking more of that. So that the evidence of the relevance and importance of the church is not just contained on a Sunday morning, but that it is seen to be a positive and pervasive force in the community at large.

 
At 9:31 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Harbor and Bridge
Neighborhood Center | Service | Church
Ohio City, Cleveland

https://www.harborandbridge.com/

This corner of W.44th and Bridge Ave. has held many different names for 140 years but it has always been a space committed to serving the neighborhood. We hope it continues to be a place where people might learn and grow in the context of community.



There's much happening right now at Harbor and Bridge. It serves as a community center hosting yoga classes, a mindfulness group, a Sudanese Cultural School, and more. It is also a service center where neighbors can find basic needs through Trials for Hope or a bike with the bicycle ministry. And it also serves as a United Methodist Church for anyone searching for a sacred space and a community of good people!

 
At 9:08 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2024/2/6/24062139/little-flower-church-south-side-auburn-gresham-preservation-chicago

Little Flower Church wilts on the South Side as community pushes to preserve it

“This church was a real mainstay and cornerstone of the community for so long,” said Ward Miller with Preservation Chicago. “It’s really wrenching to see the building not only closed but vacant and vandalized.”

 
At 9:09 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/21/leaving-christianity-religion-church-community/

I left the church — and now long for a ‘church for the nones’

 
At 4:25 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Why Are There So Many Abandoned Churches? - Atlas Obscura

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/abandoned-churches

2/29/24

Changing neighborhoods, loss of faith, even heating bills make places of worship among the most common types of forgotten places.

The story of every abandoned church is different, but there are themes: changes in neighborhood demographics, dwindling attendees and funds, aging structures, and poverty chief among them. The broad strokes of Ascension’s story aren’t that different from those of many urban churches. In parts of a city like Pittsburgh, for example, you could easily find six churches in a two-block radius, each built to serve its own ethnic population. On one corner you might have a German church, Polish or Irish catty-corner, Slovakian on the next block. Assuming they were all Catholic—and many were—mass and hymns were offered in native languages, and they often served as nexuses of integration and social support for fast-growing immigrant communities.

The buildings themselves reflected the trades and values of their attendees, with a mix of locally quarried stone and embellishments imported from home. With the postwar exodus to the suburbs and the cratering of industrial economies in many regions, churches struggled to attract people. In Kensington, with the rippling closures of its factories—dye plants, tanneries, meat-processing facilities, a Stetson Hat factory, and a staggering 126 textile mills—incomes plummeted as well. In 1970, 16.4 percent of the households in the North District, which includes a large portion of Kensington, were below the poverty level. By 2015, it was 45.4 percent, according to a report from the nonprofit City Center District. Churches consolidated and merged, but it wasn’t enough to keep up with costly, necessary repairs.

These local factors are compounded by a nationwide shift away from organized religion, schisms among the remaining churchgoers, and accusations of sexual abuse. Today, roughly a third of American adults claim to have no religious affiliation, with the number closer to 50 percent among younger generations. The Hartford Institute for Religion Research reports that between 2000 and 2020, median attendance at church services dropped from 137 to 65.

... often miss the fact that churches can serve as irreplaceable repositories of the art and history of their communities. For example, in one small Pennsylvanian coal community’s church, I couldn’t help but notice that the altar incorporated anthracite coal slabs etched with reliefs of pickaxes, shovels, and a miner’s headlamp. The locally quarried stone and old wood in churches that had been built to last centuries is, in most places, exhausted now. The very trades that were essential to the construction of a traditional church—woodwork, stonework, weaving, stained glass—are on the decline, too. Next to homes, churches are now perhaps the most pervasive type of abandoned location in America, and their numbers present a problem for which the most frequent solution is demolition.

Churches present unique challenges for repurposing—often the best option for saving a historic, abandoned building. Their spaciousness and high ceilings make heating and cooling expensive, and the materials and skills required to repair them can be prohibitively expensive. That doesn’t mean there aren’t success stories: vacant churches that have become offices, bookstores, bars or restaurants, even skate parks. Some organizations, such as Partners for Sacred Places, are fighting to support existing congregations and encourage adaptive reuse plans. Funding and entropy will always be obstacles, though.

 
At 7:37 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Arlington Street Church awarded National Park Service grant for its role in Boston's LGBTQ history

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/03/02/metro/arlington-street-church-awarded-national-park-service-grant-its-role-bostons-lgbtq-history/

The Arlington Street Church, long a spiritual beacon for the LGBTQ+
community in Boston and beyond, is one of eight recipients of grant
funding from the National Park Service for restoration projects to help
preserve America’s equal rights history.

The historic Back Bay church received $749,467 out of a total of $5 million
awarded to sites in six states that tell the stories of women, Hispanic and African Americans, laborers, and the LGBTQ community, the park service
said. Arlington Street, known for its soaring steeple and sandstone facade, in recent years launched a $20 million restoration fund-raising campaign. It
will use the grant money to rebuild the stairs to its south entrance.


The Arlington Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts, was built in 1861 and displays grand 16th-century Italian Renaissance and 18th-century English architecture primarily created in New Jersey brownstone ashlar. The building and congregation have hosted LGBTQ+ rights organizations and LGBTQ+ cultural events such as the Boston chapter of DignityUSA since 1977, and the nation’s first LGBTQ youth prom in 1981 as organized by the Boston Alliance of LGBTQ+ Youth (BAGLY). This grant will restore the missing South Stairs and provide other accessibility improvements.

 
At 9:30 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.ocregister.com/2024/02/29/caretakers-of-st-isidore-historical-plaza-hope-community-will-rally-again-for-repair

Caretakers of St. Isidore Historical Plaza hope community rally again for repairs

St. Isidore Historical Plaza has been at the heart of the Los Alamitos community for nearly 100 years.

The historic site has served generations of locals over the years – from families who attended Mass and celebrated sacraments there when it was a Roman Catholic church, to residents who revel at wedding receptions and the city’s annual Winter Wonderland event there now that it’s been turned into a community center.

Now, just as they’ve done many times over the last century, St. Isidore supporters are again banding together for a cause – this time to raise the money needed for critical repairs to the plaza chapel damaged by time and recent heavy rains.

St. Isidore Historical Plaza, the nonprofit of the same name that runs the grounds, is fundraising to replace the chapel’s clay tile roof, shore up a deteriorating wall, and restore its colorful stained-glass windows that have had to move to storage for safe-keeping, said Tanya Aguilar Barraza, president of the plaza’s board of directors.

A total fundraising goal has yet to be set, Barraza said, but experts are currently being brought in to give quotes on how much it will cost to fix these key areas.

“The plaza is what we refer to as a gem,” Barraza said. “We need the community’s support to make the repairs. We would hope that they would help us in trying to take care of what we feel to be the ‘heart of the city.”

St. Isidore was established as a Roman Catholic parish in 1921, and in 1922 community members and parishioners – mostly field hands, sugar beet factory employees, farmers, ranchers and dairymen – united to ask the Bixby Land Company for property on which they could construct a church building.

In the 1960s, parishioners rallied when their beloved church was closed in order to drive resources to a new parish that had opened nearby, plaza records show.

St. Isidore reopened roughly 10 years later and became a bastion for the Spanish-speaking community, providing social services and activities until the Diocese of Orange permanently closed it in 1999.

Once again, former parishioners, business owners and community members mobilized, and over the next few decades worked to buy the plaza from the diocese and turn it into a community center.


https://www.ocregister.com/2014/04/27/preservation-group-closes-deal-to-buy-los-alamitos-st-isidore-historical-plaza/

Preservation group closes deal to buy Los Alamitos’ St. Isidore Historical Plaza

 
At 1:20 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Church pews are sitting empty. Can they become affordable housing?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/03/08/churches-affordable-housing/

as the 15,000-square-foot church, which sits on seven acres on the edge of Silver Spring, Md., has seen its congregation shrink from 400 at its first service in 1958 to just above 100 in recent years, Deacon and his colleagues believe the church could be used to house people in a more literal way. Church officials have begun talking to developers about whether they can shrink the congregation’s physical space and convert parts of the property into affordable housing.

As churches across the region and the country have seen attendance decline — a decades-long trend hastened by the pandemic — some are examining creative ways to use their real estate to serve the public good. Chief among many churches’ concerns is the nationwide housing crisis, and some state and local governments are seeking to reduce the red tape that has hindered new housing development.

 
At 7:36 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Peterson Rich Office transforms former church into an inviting new cultural center in Detroit's East Village

https://archinect.com/news/article/150420083/peterson-rich-office-transforms-former-church-into-an-inviting-new-cultural-center-in-detroit-s-east-village

The project from Peterson Rich Office (PRO) transformed a 110-year-old former church into a new cultural center for the local Library Street Collective, a nonprofit dedicated to presenting art in the city's revitalized heritage spaces. It was executed at 16,000 square feet and culminates in two new galleries with a small library, classrooms, and workshop included for local community endeavors.

Artist Charles McGee’s sculpture garden will help activate the new 3.5-acre Legacy Park space (which also includes a skate park designed by Tony Hawk) created by OSD in the former church grounds beyond.

Artist Charles McGee’s sculpture garden will help activate the new 3.5-acre Legacy Park space (which also includes a skate park designed by Tony Hawk) created by OSD in the former church grounds beyond.

 
At 8:04 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Thousands of churches will likely close down. What happens to all that real estate?

https://religionnews.com/2024/03/15/thousands-of-churches-will-likely-close-down-what-happens-to-all-those-buildings/

A new book called 'Gone for Good' looks at the ways that churches could be reused for the public good in the future.

There’s a lot of conversation about churches being transformed into affordable housing, which the book discusses. But you’ve said that they can also be turned into other kinds of public spaces.
I’ve started to see more congregations that transform their church into a community center where they are the anchor tenant. The church becomes one element of the building. Then the church can still be a vibrant little group of folks meeting together — and there are all sorts of other things happening in that space as well.

We are seeing quite a bit around entrepreneurship — small entrepreneurs, new business incubators and co-working spaces — kind of related to that. There are also kitchen programs where you take a church’s commercial kitchen and use it as an incubator for food entrepreneurs.

 
At 4:48 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/faith-religion/2024/03/16/historic-church-presbyterian-downtown-feeding-homeless/stories/202403130080

Historic Downtown Pittsburgh church getting long-awaited renovations
Leaders of the First Presbyterian Church said the improvements will help them better serve the homeless

Lionel Cooper doesn’t just attend the weekly dinners at Downtown’s First Presbyterian Church for the food. Often, it’s for the people.

He spent several years living on Pittsburgh’s streets. He remembers wandering up and down Grant and Smithfield streets at night sometimes because he was afraid something bad would happen to him if he fell asleep.

This place always felt safe, and though he has more stability now in an apartment, he hasn’t stopped attending the weekly event. Mr. Cooper sees the volunteers as a kind of family, especially after losing his mother, and he knows others feel the same.

“They know they can come here, they can relax, they can feel like they’re safe, they get some of the necessities that they need,” he said. “The staff go out of their way to help others and make a difference, even if sometimes they don't feel like they’re doing it, they are.”

In just a few months, the over 100 unhoused and low-income Pittsburgh residents who gather at the historic church each week will enjoy an enhanced space. A $200,000 matching grant from the National Fund for Sacred Places is funding major repairs at First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, located at 320 Sixth Ave.

The work, which began earlier this month and is expected to be completed in late May, will repair the foundation and replace critical structural beams and slabs.

The English Gothic structure of First Presbyterian, which celebrated its 250th anniversary last year, stands as a recognizable and historic relic in the Central Downtown Historic District. It boasts 13 Tiffany windows, two-ton carved oak doors between the sanctuary building and chapel and a Casavant Frères organ with 4,400 pipes.

“A part of this is structural, we want to maintain the integrity of the building,” Rev Gardner said. “But we're trying to get more of an open area where we can take better advantage of our space and do more helpful ministry. It’s treating people like people, giving them the opportunity to sit down with a hot meal and convene as friends.”

 
At 3:29 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Full-time ministry drains too many clergy and church budgets. Part-time pastors can help

https://religionnews.com/2024/03/14/full-time-ministry-drains-too-many-clergy-and-church-budgets-part-time-pastors-can-help/

First, the problem. Congregations are selling off assets, from endowment stock funds to parsonages and other church properties, to plug their budget gaps and keep paying full-time clergy who’re tired and often seeking a career change. In a survey of 1,700 pastors conducted last fall by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, 53% of clergy had seriously considered leaving ministry at least once since 2020.

The solution for many churches has been to switch to part-time clergy, lowering their overhead and allowing them to hold on to their assets.


But there is a bigger advantage to part-time ministry, as Hartford’s data show. Part-timers are happier, healthier and more committed to professional ministry than are their more expensive, and often more burned-out, full-time counterparts.

 
At 3:33 AM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Amid boom times, Las Vegas becoming a model of ‘intentional Catholicism’ | Crux

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2024/03/amid-boom-times-las-vegas-becoming-a-model-of-intentional-catholicism

When Father Sean Dresden addressed the St. John Paul II Parish faithful for the first time as founding pastor, during a Mass held at a Henderson, Nevada high school, he emphasized that the physical location of their worship wasn’t really essential.

“The heart of my message is that we’re not necessarily building a building, we’re building a community,” Dresden told Crux. “I’m a firm believer in providence, and whether it’s three years or 15 years before we get a building, the important thing is the people, the community that we’re going to build, and the message of the gospel that we’re going to share.”

The first Mass for St. John Paul II Parish was March 3, and right now it has about 400 parishioners, which Dresden said “is a wonderful start.” With the growth of the area, it projects to have about 3,500 families by the time a new church building is opened in what Dresden said will hopefully be three to five years.

St. John Paul II Parish is the first new parish to open since Las Vegas was elevated to an archdiocese by Pope Francis last May. Its projected growth, and Dresden’s emphasis on building a community, is a microcosm of what’s taking place across the archdiocese.


Thomas said it boils down to a number of values that he preaches to the archdiocese’s pastors and lay leaders, which, he says, “are not rocket science.” They include the importance of dynamic preaching and a beautifully celebrated liturgy to ensure a sense of hospitality and welcome, an emphasis on youth and young adult ministry, and the idea that every person is a missionary disciple.

The most important, however, is co-responsibility between the clergy and lay faithful.

“It’s important to understand the importance and the impact of collaborative ministry and shared responsibility – that the pastor does not bear the brunt of the responsibility alone,” Thomas said. “To involve the lay faithful in every aspect of parish life is very important.

 
At 7:06 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

In another sign of membership trends, St. Bernard in Wauwatosa will close, merge with Christ King

https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/west/2024/03/19/wauwatosas-st-bernard-parish-closing-being-sold-to-developer/73021496007

St. Bernard Parish, a Catholic church on the edge of Wauwatosa's downtown village area, will close and the property will be sold to a developer, its pastor said in a letter to parishioners on Sunday.

Church operations will merge with its sister parish, Christ King, said the Rev. Phillip Bogacki, pastor of both St. Bernard and Christ King. The merged parish will move entirely to the Christ King campus, and use its name, Bogacki said.

The closure of St. Bernard, at 1500 N. Wauwatosa Ave., follows the shuttering at the end of the last school year of the adjoining Wauwatosa Catholic School because of a financial deficit and low student enrollment.

Beyond that, the move reflects what is happening to scores of houses of worship nationwide facing existential threats such as declining membership, aging congregations and an unwinnable financial situation.

Bogacki called attention in his letter to changes in demographics and churchgoing habits in Wauwatosa, a city of about 48,000 people with five Catholic parishes and six more nearby. As is the story elsewhere in the country, Catholic institutions were at their peak in the 1950s and 60s, and a downturn began in the 1970s. People began to have fewer children, and the high concentration of Catholic churches and schools in the area no longer fits the needs of residents.

"Our area parishes — as a group — have been operating far below their intended capacity for several decades," he said. "The moment to choose to change our trajectory is now."

 
At 7:07 PM, Blogger Richard Layman said...

Wisconsin's oldest Methodist congregation closes due to high bills, low turnout. It's a familiar story nationwide.

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2023/07/11/milwaukees-summerfield-united-methodist-church-closes-amid-high-bills/70361234007/

Researchers estimate that before the COVID pandemic, 75 to 100 houses of worship closed each week in the U.S., facing the same headwinds as Summerfield: aging and dwindling congregations saddled with insurmountable upkeep costs.

Churches that are thriving today tend to offer modern services and programming.

Summerfield, the oldest Methodist congregation in Wisconsin, had shrunk to only 11 members, none under 65 years old. The historic building at North Cass Street and East Juneau Avenue, constructed in 1904 as the successor to Summerfield’s first church, needed extensive repairs.

Summerfield's neighborhood is saturated with churches, a legacy of America’s more churchgoing past.

Today, many churches around the country are facing the same challenges. Experts project that 100,000 church properties could be sold across the U.S. in the next several years.

Mark Elsdon is the executive director of Pres House, a Presbyterian campus ministry at UW-Madison, and an expert on church properties.

When churches fold and a developer buys the land, the social good the church was providing — meals for the homeless, for instance – is gone for good, Elsdon said.

Churches also offer a space for community gatherings that, say, the high-end apartments that take their place can’t. Girl Scout troops, neighborhood associations, Alcoholics Anonymous groups and more often meet in churches for free or a small fee, he said.

“Where is that all going to meet?” he said. “You can’t have an AA in a Starbucks.”

Elsdon is struck by the scale of church closures.

“You just look at a map of where all these churches are (in Milwaukee), and you imagine, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, a third to a half of them are something else. What does that do to those neighborhoods?” Elsdon said.

With his organization, Rooted Good, Elsdon works with church leaders to figure out how to repurpose buildings — before it’s too late — in a way that aligns with their mission. Elsdon has seen church properties converted to affordable housing, a kitchen for marginalized youth, a business center to support entrepreneurs, a childcare co-op for Latina teen mothers and more.

“We need to adapt to what it means to be a faith community today,” he said.

Summerfield is a prime example of a church whose closure leaves a hole in the neighborhood.

In recent years, Summerfield’s small, devoted cohort of volunteers made an outsized impact. The meal program regularly served hot meals to about 50 to 100 people four times a week before the pandemic. In the last couple years, 30 to 40 received meals three days a week.

The basement hall was open daily as a warming center in winter and a cooling center in the summer. Members had showers installed and ran a clothing donation operation, giving hats, coats and gloves to people in need.

And Sarsfield traveled weekly to an Oconomowoc distributor of Brownberry bread to pick up about 300 loaves of bread, bagels and English muffins that the church set outside the building for people to take.

Most nights, Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous groups met in the church basement.

Marcia Tremaine, who along with Sarsfield volunteered at the church every day, joined about a decade ago after moving back to the Midwest from the Washington, D.C., area.

“I came here because they were doing something,” Tremaine said. “So many other churches say, 'Let’s pray about these people.'”

https://www.rootedgood.org/

 

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