An Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh councillor says it's clear to most people that live in small, rural communities that churches are being abandoned, and in some cases, torn down at a disturbing rate.
Jennifer Miltenburg says one of the things that emerged from the recent "Community Spaces, Faith Places Virtual Conference" is that data shows the extent of the problem in rural communities and the buildings are being used for a wide range of non-profit activities.
Miltenburg says they can now take information to government officials and ask them to be part of the solution.
“The point of the survey was to actually put data to it because we are losing our buildings. But if you can actually have data and say to government officials look this is a problem, and it's a systematic problem,” said Miltenburg. “So the argument is these are not just church buildings, these are community buildings and the municipalities have to look at them differently because they are invisible infrastructure for the municipality and they need to do something to help save them.”
Miltenburg says anyone who lives in a small rural community knows a church and in some communities the church is the only community building in the area. One of the challenges is maintaining the buildings after they are not being used as churches and the lack of funding to make repairs.
Miltenburg says the conference was a clear call to action and the problem is too big for one group to solve.
She also hopes the conference will become an annual event.
