Transplanting a Seattleite

Regular readers remember this: http://walkitout.livejournal.com/796060.html

http://www.laconiadailysun.com/node/119865/18661

A funeral home operator in Laconia, NH had already bought a property in hopes of turning it into a rentable facility for gatherings -- they knew there was a local need, because their clients asked for a place to serve food and socialize and there were limited places to suggest for them. Then a Kingdom Hall went up for sale nearby, and they realized it was what they were intending to build. Add a few TVs and voila: the Beane Conference Center is born.

The town I used to live in in New Hampshire (not Laconia) bought a retired Catholic Church. It's available for rent from the town and a bunch of JPs and an old catholic church advertise it as a place where they'd be happy to perform ceremonies.

We track number of housing units added/removed, commercial space added/removed, hotel, blah, blah, bleeping, blah. Do we track number of religious facilities added/removed? Hmmm...

ETA: This isn't about facilities, but rather parishes.

http://ncronline.org/blogs/essays-theology/state-us-parishes-today

And this is about mergers of churches that are shrinking vs. mergers of megas that lead to multi-site churches (I'd be tempted to think of it as a new denomination).

This is going to be another one of those more and more addenda posts, in this case, collecting examples of churches closing. What caught my eye was how unbelievably small the congregations got before the church decided to close.

http://www.newtondailynews.com/articles/2011/08/25/r_pnr2nqjdqj_rx3kz8ywa/index.xml

"Sunday will mark the final service for the church, just a few days short of its 142nd birthday. Sunday’s service, set for 2 p.m., will be a rare decommissioning and closing service for St. Paul’s, and Pastor Nancy Pick said that for her and the other eight remaining members of the congregation, it will seem something like a funeral."

It's going to become a house.

http://www.kimt.com/content/localnews/story/Area-Church-Closes-Doors/6vZAKJ39CUeLFqwKLIjUaQ.cspx

"Down to only 12 members, the congregation made the tough decision to close."

This one closed with a bigger congregation, and some people think it maybe wasn't _just_ financial issues:

http://westhollywood.patch.com/articles/crescent-heights-united-methodist-congregants-saddened-angry-over-church-closing

http://westhollywood.patch.com/articles/crescent-heights-methodist-church-was-too-gay-says-controversial-pastor

And look! Former Presbyterian Church property about to become a new apartment complex in Houston. I love it when memes collide.

http://www.chron.com/business/sarnoff/article/Luxury-apartments-will-replace-church-2143728.php