Greetings to all the Europeans here. I’ve noticed that In recent years, some progressive churches in the UK and Europe in general have begun opening their buildings to non-religious cultural events; everything from art installations to secular concerts, and even electronic music raves. One notable example is the Manchester Cathedral (Manchester, UK), which has hosted events like the Manchester 360 rave:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUoV9v1c-w0
At the same time, media narratives, particularly from conservative sources, frame this trend as symptomatic of Europe’s ‘spiritual decline.” For example, CBN produced this segment titled “Europe Leaves Christianity for Paganism”:
https://youtu.be/0tn3DzB2VNQ?si=mCbhOk3qZV0QQbV5
While the CBN video does touch on real statistical shifts (e.g., rising religious ‘nones”), its framing seems ideologically motivated, mislabeling atheism and agnosticism as forms of “paganism” and presenting the shift as purely negative. Personally, I approach this from a more neutral-to-progressive position as a non-fundamentalist theist/deist.
From the standpoint of the Europeans here, I’m interested in the following questions:
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How are you interpreting this phenomenon? Are you neutral, approving, or anti this change in church/”sacred” building function?
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Do you think this repurposing of religious space can be better understood as a case of “institutional adaptation” to a secularizing society, or as evidence of institutional decline?
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Could these practices reflect a “functional shift”, where churches serve more as community/cultural centers rather than exclusive religious institutions?
I would love to hear your views.
Comments
I’m not religious and wasn’t raised by religious people so it doesn’t bother me. I think it’s a natural change that as less people are religious, but old buildings can still have cultural importance, or just in a practical sense they’re there, so they’re used for other things. Maybe in some cases it could be disrespectful. But even something like non religious people having funerals, weddings, etc in churches is technically using them for non religious purposes but has been done for ages because that’s where those ceremonies are traditionally held. This has also happened over history for example pagan sites and holidays being converted to Christian, or the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul going from a church to a mosque. I think it’s just natural that as society changes these things will be adapted.
Let’s not forget that many of these historical buildings have tremendous maintenance costs. Without a large regular congregation tithing and with heavy cuts in state support due to austerity, it makes sense to look for alternative revenue streams which can help keep the church in good order and its caretakers paid a salary
It’s great. The sooner that religion becomes irrelevant in our modern society the better.
I’d rather the churches become places of community events like food drives, bookshops (the one in Maastricht), libraries, community centres (https://absaloncph.dk/) and other local events, than tourist attractions tbh.
I think it’s a wonderful idea. These buildings are of incredible historic significance and should be preserved and used by the public. Sometimes there is no demand to continue using them as a place of worship and sometimes these buildings even fall into ruin.
Repurposing them is a wonderful way to cherish it history, the many people who worked on them and to allow them to continue to be relevant for years to come.
This happens even in buildings which are still used for worship. For example, my hometown has a very big monastery. It’s still a functioning church, mass, baptisms, weddings are still celebrated. But you will also see it be used for plays, concerts and even sweets and liquor festivals (in other areas, where the monks used to live).
This is vastly welcome by the community, who feels they have ownership of such an important building in their town, and it makes it feel relevant and well taken care of
In terms of functional shift, I think I wouldn’t put it that way. Churches and such have always been a place where people come together as a community. Now there are just other ways to have them do so.
Depends a bit. Some small ones are made into houses. Larger ones become libraries, museums, theaters or concert venues. I’ve also seen one that has become a vinyl record shop, with a Marilyn Monroe doll on the pulpit just like in the movie Tommy. I like that they’re still used as a way to gather a community together.
Some others have been turned into a mosque. And that I find deeply insulting, given the history of muslims historically repressing minorities in conquered nations, and the current political tensions. It’s a religion hateful to everything a liberal progressive society stands for, and then to see Western buildings now used for their ideology, no, that’s not okay.
Since when weren’t churches also used for secular events? Obviously they had their religious function, but they very commonly served as the general “community center” too. It was commonly the main location large enough to hold community events historically, and would host everything from city council meetings to various different secular celebrations (everything from war victories to village festivals).
I’m British and non-religious.
A lot of these buildings cost a lot to maintain. If the church cannot afford to maintain them then one of two things will happen: the building will slowly fall into disrepair, which would be sad, or eventually it would have to be sold off and likely deconsecrated. So I can see why they are looking for ways to bring money in. The CoE in general does not have loads of cash floating around compared to, say, the Catholic Church.
In addition to that, I’m sure any church over a certain age has seen plenty of secular activity over the centuries. In many places the church would have been the only large, stone building, I’m sure they saw all sort of extra uses.
That said, I can understand why churchgoers would be upset if the church was used for things they felt was against their religion or interferes with their worship. That’s fair enough in my book.
I’m not sure about a rave party in a cathedral because who knows how that might damage the building
I’m all for tasteful and intelligent use of religious or secular historical buildings
I also love a sense of humor
I once was in a castle in Loire valley where the chapel inside was decorated in a Sleeping Beauty theme. It was ethereal and really tastefully done. It got visitors look at it in detail and enjoy it for longer because otherwise they would have just passed by it
I have also stayed in an ex-Catholic monastery turned into hotel. The confession stands (I’m not sure of the proper term in English) were at the entrance of the building but they kept cactuses inside them
Those are all things that churches used to do, heck people ran military exercises in their backyards, city militia forces and pike formations arise there in these training routines organised within the various church grounds of Milan and whatnot, and church buildings were used for education.
Most of the religious festivities are really community driven activities which we coded as religious but are not intrinsically per se. A choir is just s musical group from locals. English priests have had a strong hand in spreading after-work sport activities in 18-19th century England.
And religious buildings were the original libraries.
The reason why churches became more exclusive religious grounds is precisely because they’ve been dying. For reasons that may be that first caused it, what we see now is a selection bias of people who tend to be more conservative and also have more exclusive interests in churches.
Repurposing religious places isn’t really a sign of the Christian faiths adapting with time, but dying. In the end if there’s nothing or no one to claim these the first to put a flag inside is the new owner.
Personally I like more when churches or non churches old buildings that fall out of use to get preserved more as a historical attraction, but that’s not only my interest for churches but general, I wouldn’t like it they actually went through with making the colosseum as a place of regular concerts for ex. It’s true that a lot of these buildings come from continuous repurposing but it’s also true that we created a completely different world with the industrial revolution in the 19th century, there’s a clear divide of an after and before, where the bits from before are more similar to each other despite long distances in time than the things after. So old places hold more the value that dinosaurs do in our interest for nature, rather than the type of interest of discovering a new species of bats.
Maintaining these buildings isn’t that expensive for the economy overall actually but if it can’t give economic positive returns you’re not going to justify why to spend 10 million across several buildings in a big city, this has been proven time and time again, so repurposing these builds is still better overall. There’s also the argument that I can’t go to an old uninhabited monastery every weekend, sometimes I will want to go to the library or go to a concert by the local town, so that way a person can go both to the library and visit old paintings at the same time.
By recent years you mean the las half century (probably longer but I am not old enough for that.)
Religions are private entities who should do with their buildings as they please. I am fully against considering religions as anything other than any club or organisation. Religions are not something special that deserve special status. so why should I care about what these clubs do with their clubhouses?
Is there a functional shift or have churches always been used for things other than religious services?
To have a bunch of churches no one goes to is wasteful, it´s better the church sells them and focuses on the ones where they have people actually attend their services.
It’s fine.
The fact that Christianity is in decline is a good thing. But it also means a lot of Christian denominations, especially state or national churches have more church buildings than they need. Some have already been sold and they may need to rent out some in order to pay for maintenance.
Great acoustics, would love to see more concert halls in former churches, we actually got one in Wroclaw that is an old church who does great venues…Stary Klasztor
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Unused churches are desecrated and mostly become community property.
It is the church council who decides – mostly based on the fact there are too few visitors and insufficient finances.
Municipality organises a survey to determine its new destination. In cities sometimes former churches become restaurants or shopping malls but in smaller communities they are mostly transformed to locations for cultural events.
It’s a good thing, the buildings are part of the heritage and are protected – luckily they can’t be demolished by real estate companies to build apartment complexes.
In most cases the new destination is also aimed at bringing people together.
It would be a sin (pun intended) to let them rot away.
Once when I visited a city with my gf, we saw an art vernisage in a smaller church. They covered up the crosses with jesus with white cloth. I found it very inappropriate. Churches are part of our culture and deserve to be treated with dignity.
Parish churches in Sweden has been hosting secular concerts for decades. Mostly classical music and genres that appeal to an older audience, but still events that are unconnected to church services. I think it’s a great way use culturally significant buildings that otherwise would stand empty most of the time.
I’m not religious but I find that extremely sad. I guess it’s better than abandoning these churches to fall apart, but if they are repurposed, I think they should serve a purpose that elevates the soul — become a classical concert hall, a library, a museum, something like that. A rave party… no.
As a protestant christian we believe that a church is just a church and that God is not specifically ‘in the Church’ but ‘in the congregation’, meaning the people. I do believe Europe is in ‘spiritual decline’ we’re not busy with having a meaningful, we’re not searching for meaning in extraneous things, not using or accepting guidance from institutions (with quite some good reasons). If we’re looking for purpose, we’re often looking inside ourselves. We have an issue with longterm commitment and membership.
So we do have less use for churches, as we are less church members, because we don’t look for purpose there, don’t want to part of something that way. (Imho, that’s OK) for me churches are places of quiet contemplation, although I’m protestant I don’t handle collective worship, services with a lot if people really well. Like my church quiet.
So if a church gets repurposed, it was just a building in the first place. I don’t like them to be to ‘on the nose’, so not an abortion clinic? Don’t mind it being repurposed into restaurants (still community), pubs (talking, community) community centers, bookstores, debate centers or even music venues..
But as a metalhead I still would have a little ‘nah meh’ when Ghost or Lil Jon would perform. But there have been great performances in churches, even metal adjacent ones I love. (I think Amenra, Darkher in Antwerp, Bruit in Marseilles)
I am not the owner of those churches, so if the church as an institution is OK with its buildings being used this way, then who am I to disagree? In general though, if they provide something useful for a community, then I am all for it. I know a church with a post office and a soft play for kids inside, and I think it’s a brilliant use of a building that otherwise would’ve been empty outside of the mass times.
I think the Christian church is losing its importance as an institution in Western Europe, though a church building being used for something else while retaining its function of a church is nothing new. Church buildings being solde outright is a more clear sign of decline.
The churches have been played a role of community / cultural centres and many more other roles for centuries.
The spiritual decline is a fact, and it is not a new phenomenon. There are simply too many churches now for too few people, at least in westen Europe where I live. So opening churches for other activities is a great idea – also closing down churches and repurposing them works.
These buildings are very expensive to maintain, and the cost is born by the tax payers – so let’s open them up for all these tax payers to use
They have always been used for all kinds of events for The community. Its a good use of expensive common space
I think a rave is a bad idea. Rave audiences aren’t exactly considerate.
That aside… if they want to put a building to use that’s empty most of the time why not?
A lot of churches in my country (the Netherlands) have been transformed to libraries, apartments, galeries, etc. I really like that. They have to keep the outside preserved because they are often historical monuments and it’s great that these beautiful buildings get a new purpose for the next generations. The alternative is that they are demolished or fall to ruin.
I don’t see it as a decline. After all, it’s just a building and buildings over the centuries change their usage.
You’ve been asking questions like this on various subreddits for months. Not getting answers you want?
CBN is the “Christian Broadcasting Network”. So they are not a news source, but a severely biased organisation with a clear agenda. Their framing on this matter shows that clearly.
No one should give a damn what they say.
I think it’s wonderful. If a church is still in use, it provides the church with some much needed revenue that can be used for maintenance. If the church has fallen out of use due to a declining religious population, then it’s a good way to preserve the building and keep it around in the cityscape.
I’m a Pole so I don’t see it happening as our churches still have people attending at big numbers regularly but if in other countries churches are mostly empty then it’s fine to use them in other ways. Ofc with the respect such old buildings deserve to preserve them as they often were great architectural pieces.
The Church just need to do some of their stuff so that the land under it isn’t considered sacred and even they shouldn’t have a problem with that.
In Czechia this has been happening for a very long time already. In the village I grew up in, the local small church was used as a storage room – then they repaired it like 6? years ago and now it serves for cultural events like choir singing etc.
I doubt anyone in the village would go to church for a mass, Christians make up around 5 percent of the whole region (Ústecký kraj). Why not use empty, unused churches for something else? It’s just a building.
I’m sorry I can’t read anything beyond “spiritual decline”.
I’m personally an atheist so I don’t care, but people should look history up before being outraged at events hosted at churches 😂 we don’t take “spirituality” that seriously.
I’m agnostic, and when I was in my late teens and early 20s, we regularly rented a prayer room form our local Lutheran church to party in.
But doing it in a church seems somehow wrong. I’m not against using them as theaters or community halls, but those buildings tend to have a lot of history that should be respected in my opinion.
I’m an actively religious person and I fully support it! I think it’s a cool way to re-utilize a beautiful and many times historic space.
I don’t mind. Of course they can be repurposed well and poorly. I know of a local initiative to build a public pool inside a church. Sounds super cool but a climate nightmare with the humidity levels and the murals. 🫠
I am from Maastricht. We have a famous bookstore in a church (some of you will know it). I love that one. These buildings are empty anyway and there’s nothing as bad for old buildings as not being uses for a long time. At least in the bookstore there’s maintenance and someone turning the lights on (and the heater).
This has been happening for decades. Repurposing old buildings always happens and in my view is the best way to live with your history.
Where I live there was a massive boom of Roman Catholic buildings between late 19th and mid 20th century. So there are old convents, churches, care institutions that used to be run by nuns, seminaries. These buildings are beautiful and great for appartments, schools, convention centers.
When I was a kid in the 70’s/80’s our village had the “flower church”: a beautiful little chapel that was in use as a flower shop. Flowers everywhere, gorgeous.
In Italy it’s nothing new, it’s more often done with smaller churches that can more easily be converted into museums, exhibit spaces, libraries, congress halls, and the likes. Sometimes it is done with bigger ones, too, usually because there’s no longer a big enough local congregation, or the building is damaged and repairs will be costly, etc.
Italy has A LOT of churches, so this is unsurprising, especially since after WWII more and more people could afford a car and so having a lot of small churches around the countryside was less needed in order to reach people, now folks could easily travel longer diatances for Sunday mass, marriages, baptisms, and the likes. Nowadays there’s less people living in remote areas overall, less people going to church, and less people becoming priests, so downsizing is needed and in many cases makes sense.
My own village had several churches (main one, one tied to the local Franciscan convent, and a small one that’s close to the main one, plus three others in the countryside for the various frazioni), the smaller one of the three has been used for local art shows at least since the 90s and people are overall happy about it, since if one wants to attend mass they can still choose between five other churches and having a space for art shows means more of them are being held, which means more local artists can showcase their work. It is seen as a win/win situation.
I have heard complaining in other situations because someone had emotional ties to a former church, or because it has some artistic significance, but the truth is you would be hard-pressed to find a church in Italy that has none and I think the same is true for most EU countries. The sad truth is that perfectly preserving every building with some kind of artistic and/or historical value is very difficult if not impossibile.
Interesting, I don’t really see this in practice, even though my country is very irreligious. The main churches that get disused are in the countryside, because of internal migration, but they are usually the only old historic building in their area, so they get maintained anyway. Concerts (esp classical music) were held in churches since forever, except the heavy Communist years.
I like that and I wanna se mosques and synagogues and pretty much every religious building repurposed like that all across the planet
Excellent. Churches should serve their communities’ secular celebrations, like they have always done.
Harvest celebrations, weddings (yes, those aren’t inherently religious and didn’t use to take place in churches, or in some places were only allowed to be done in the entrance), etc. the list is very long.
And nowadays people want other kinds of celebrations to be held there.
To me, there is no difference between allowing a concert with a quartet playing baroque music on classical instruments, or allowing a rave.
And it makes church and Christianity more relevant to many people. I know that only a minority will actually think of those events as religious, but it still shows people that their church isn’t only a dusty old building with rituals they don’t understand wrapped in words they don’t understand.
I feel a rave can be worship just as good as 1600s hymns can.
As a religious person it makes me kind of sad that religion is so in decline that these buildings are no longer needed for the purpose they were built for. But they’re still beautiful buildings, and repurposing them so they can be maintained is better imo than letting them rot away because of a belief that they should be kept exclusively for events with a religious character. Though I do prefer purposes where the building is still visible and visitable rather than something like appartements
In my homecity we have so many churches some are not even churches anymore, one is a library, another one a theatre, some others are used to host events. I quite like it, even if I would like them to be still public and not owned by privates.
Anyway since I’m atheist for me is not a problem at all, since I enjoy them as buildings I like them to have other purposes. The library-church was the place where I went to study and I loved it since churches are quite places because everything you do is amplified, so people tend to be very quite (well, except tourists).
It’s up for the church to decide.
For example the Jewish community here was happy to convert their synagogues to furniture shops, legal offices and stuff. As long as they don’t open on Sabbath. For Christian churches it seems to be a taboo.
However churches are pretty impractical for most purposes and are outright crap when it comes to modern building standards.
Old abandoned abbeys or monasteries have been converted to civilian use though. They are much more suited for schools, hotels and stuff.
Churches near me have always welcomed atheists and people from different faiths from our community on their doorstep for different events, so to me this is nothing new. I support it, always have, but as a Christian hope that church services still continue and aren’t interrupted and the space isn’t damaged.
In my opinion, all church buildings should be treated with respect and be preserved, as part of our historical and cultural heritage and due to what they have meant and still means to a lot of people. And generally, the older the building the more respect and care it deserves.
I would be okay with secularizing a church building if needed if it is still preserved both externally and eternally, and if it for example becomes a free public museum.
I am however not okay with turning church buildings into places for hosting parties – and certainly not rave parties. I find that horribly offensive. I am also generally against using them for modern art exhibitions, as a lot of modern art is very vulgar and trashy and political, and not fit at all for a church building. And I am definitely also heavily against making secularized churches into part of shopping centers, which sadly happened here in Sweden some time ago. That is definitely highly offensive and also met with a lot of protests at the time.
I would however definitely be in favor of converting mosques into places for rave parties, modern art exhibitions or shopping centers though, as they are not actually part of Nordic culture or history anyway.
It’s a money draw for them I would’ve thought? These things have been happening for a while in the UK when I was a kid churches regularly rented out halls for parties and small gigs completely harmless
I absolutely love it. Most churches in Europe are incredibly beautiful and since christianity is becoming less and less popular a lot of churches stand empty most of the time. As long as the buildings are respected and kept up to stay beautiful I think it’s great to organize events so that more people can enjoy the beautiful spaces.
I’m fine with that. I certainly don’t have any religious/spiritual concerns (not being a fan of religion/spiritualism myself). I do have some vague feelings on objects/decorations depicting very serious things being used as background for very much not serious things, but those feelings are vague and not particularly strong… usually…
…thing is, one of my most awkward experiences was a Boban Marković Orkestar concert held in the Great Synagogue here in Budapest. Because for one, it’s not the kind of music that you listen to while sitting down, and it was hilarious to see people squirming around, kind of subtly dancing while sitting in the rows (by the end the larger part of the audience decided “fuck it, I came to have a good time and I’m gonna have a good time”), but also… the Great Synagogue is part of a complex that includes a Holocaust memorial, and literal mass graves of Jewish people who died in the ghettos. So you’re there at a concert trying to have a good time, while being very much aware that you’re literally surrounded by reminders of genocide and actual remains of those who died in said genocide. It was supremely awkward.
Churches have always opened their doors to the culture. Expanding on that is just logical.
But I’m an atheist who knows a lot about religious history, so take my view for what it is. Conservative religious people might have a different view.
As a non-Christian I don’t mind depending on the purpose. I’d like to see these spaces stay calm and spiritual, whatever purpose they’re changed to.
I think France is a bit particular in this matter. During the revolution, as the monarchy was based on religion, there were many changes at the time. The two main were first the separation on church and state, meaning religion will not have a say in politics and second the nationalisation of churches and religion owned land. Consequence of this is that it is a village/town/city that decides what their churches are used for. Basically it changed nothing for the vast majority of churches in most villages that remained used by catholics. But in bigger cities where there were multiple churches, chapels, cathedrals, some have been reused for a long time. Two exemples near me : a small church that has been used for years as a gallery mostly for paintings and photo exhibitions and a rather big church that has been rearranged inside to be housing for old people (so on the outside it looks like a church and on the inside like an appartements building. Also, being in a big city, as it’s up to the city to decide what each church is used for, they could decide to let an other religion use it.
Beside funny exemples, I think the main consequences are that when the small church used as a gallery burned years ago it was the city that had to pay for the reparations. Just as for Notre Dame in Paris, even though it is used by as catholic church. Also when the revolution took from the church its properties, it took the cemeteries, therefore it is not managed by church and you can be buried according to the cult you want in it.
So the bottom line here is : we don’t care what you want to do with churches.
Absolutely spectacular. Those churches are scams for the elderly and homes for pedophiles, there’s no reason for them to still exist.
I’ve been to several churches which aren’t officially churches anymore, one is a concert hall, another is a bar, the third one is a private house that I got to stay in.
I know a danish church used for satanic black metal concert as well. But I guess if it isnt used like that then nobody will use it for anything at all. Only people who attend a place of worship in Europe are muslims.
Here in Spain unless it’s a private chapel the church owns the building so only events they allow can be performed there. So i don’t think they would allow something like a rave. Sometimes when a church or a convent has no use anymore they desacralize the building and sell it. Then it can be bought by the town hall or by a private person and given diferent uses like concert hall or hotel, it’s a great way of preserving those beautiful old buildings that have no religious use anymore.
What else can they be used for? Many people don’t go to church anymore, so all there are left are unused buildings on valuable land. Most churches aren’t built to be repurposed into houses, and companies aren’t keen on buying a building they need to invest a lot of money to repurpose or aren’t big enough to fit all of their employees. So all you’re left with are these events that can be geld in a place that fits a certain type of theme. The organizers pay to use the venue, and that money is in turn used for repairs. God won’t care because churches don’t represent God as a whole.
I’m not religious myself.
I can see how it might be frustrating to Christians. These are spiritual places, and it feels weird to hold a rave or something like that in a place of worship of a religion that isn’t even dead. As long as the events don’t damage or alter the building too much, and aren’t being disrespectful to Christianity, I’m not against it though.
And at the same time, these are often old buildings that require maintenance. Church attendance is declining, and churches’ income is probably declining as well. It would be a shame if we’d have to start demolishing monuments like this (or let them collapse), so if these events can somehow help maintain them, that’s nice.
Another solution would be to essentially sell them off to the state as national monuments, so that the national or local government would come to be in charge of maintaining these churches.
It’s sad that churches are not used for their intended purposes but I guess it’s better than the alternative and besides we have many instances of buildings that were not intended to be used as christian churches (Pantheon, Cathedral of Siracusa, the Baths of Diocletian, etc) but survived because they were turned into churches, so I guess history will repeat itself.
Many might not see it that way, but I believe this is a way to ”keep people hooked”.
Of course what they’re doing is a beautiful thing, but it’s hard to trust insitutions at their weakest when you know what they’ve done when they were at their strongest.
A lot of the churches that have been decommissioned in Copenhagen are in neighborhoods that were MUCH denser when they were built. Through tearing down rear houses, merging small flats into bigger units and just simply people living larger, those neighborhoods don’t have the population to sustain as many churches per square km as they did when they were full of working-class tenants stuffing eight children into a single room. I find it hard to be upset about that.
I think it’s great. They’re not revamping churches which are still part of an active community. But many historical cities have 50-60 churches out of which probably less than 10 are used for mass. There’s no point in keeping 40 unused churches locked up year round because they used to be churches.You can’t really tear them down and rebuild something else because they’re historic buildings so repurposing them seems great.
To be honest I think this is not a new development. Closed churches where always used for other purposes. It’s just that they used to be hidden and unglamorous. A lot of them were just big storage spaces. In that sense they’re finally going ahead and updating the usage of the space to something more becoming for a historic place.
Churches were built as spaces for education, community, and display of public art to the glory of God. Lending that out to secular and other religious purposes is the heart of Christianity. Sharing is one of the first things that we teach children. Community, understanding, and joy in artistic expression can only be to the good. If that has the end result of allowing church buildings to stay viable and remain open, then that is a great way to respect our ancestors in their creativity and devotion.
It is a material building, I dont see what’s the fuss here spiritually. Jesus didn’t preach for the construction of cathedrals at the expense of the faithful
It’s great, many churches have wonderful acoustics, so the concerts sound really good.
I went to see Ingrid Michaelson at a church next to Highbury and Islington in London and the sound could not have been better from where I was seated
Here in Aberdeen in the North East of Scotland, many (most?) of the churches in the city centre have been sold off and are now used as bars, night clubs, casinos and restaurants.
They make great atmospheric venues and far better to see such lovely old buildings in use than for them to fall into disrepair.
As long as they take care of the building and any art inside it, I’m happy to see historic buildings get money and remain relevant to their communities.
I’m sure there’s people saying it’s a sign of something. But it doesn’t have to be that deep. There are plenty of new churches, located more conveniently, and with better facilities and insulation. What are we meant to do with the ancient ones that have no indoor plumbing, bulldoze them? Wait for a satan worshipper to burn it and collect insurance money?
I mean, it’s not a new thing. When the “new” church was built around 1900, the old one was repurposed into a school gym.