Kingsbridge resident and Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh councillor, Jennifer Miltenburg, says it's estimated that one-third of Canada's faith buildings are in danger of closing.
She says the United Church is reporting one building a week closing and about fifty per cent of the buildings in danger are in rural areas. Those figures prompted a study to look at the situation in four areas; Sudbury, Toronto, Peterborough and Huron County, to get a look at a large city, medium city, small city and rural context. And that has led to a conference later this month focusing on Huron County.
Miltenburg says the point of the studies was to show that these faith buildings are used as a community space.
“The point of these studies was to show that these faith buildings are used as a community space, they're not just faith buildings. And in a rural area, that is spectacularly true and the data is showing that they are being used by so many different not for profits,” said Miltenburg.
In fact, the community of Kingsbridge has earned national recognition for turning their abandoned Catholic Church into a community centre and a video featuring the church will be shown at the conference.
Miltenburg says their goal is to get more people to join the conversation.
“I think the point of this is we want people to join that conversation on how faith places are invisible infrastructure and what actions can we take that we actually create stronger, more resilient communities rather than just shuttered buildings.”
The virtual conference takes place on November 24th from 10 a.m. to noon and Miltenburg says people can find more information and can register by going to kingsbridgecentre.ca and go to the events calendar.
