Recycled churches

In the UK, church attendance has been in decline for decades, possibly a century. Almost nobody I know, including myself, go to church for it’s intended purpose.

Our villages, towns and cities are peppered with thousands of churches. Many of them are very old, expensive to maintain and trying to find a place in a world in which their old role has been all but washed away.

This past week I attended two events. One was a ‘festival of light’, and the other was a group of Armenian musicians.

Both events took place in churches. Both were remarkable.

One of them is still a church for worshippers. You can go there on a Sunday and do what you always did. The other has been converted to be a venue exclusively for early music concerts.

There’s something very evocative about an old church. Stone columns, gargoyles, pews, the inscriptions on the walls, the imposing wooden doors, and… the sound. The bareness of the space, and the hardness of the surfaces gives sound the opportunity to bounce around, to reflect off the walls and ceilings. The chance to reverberate.

I’m not too sure how easy it is to keep these buildings habitable. I’m guessing that it’s not cheap – at all. They’re made of expensive materials, with structures that are not following a plan. Each is unique and there’s no off-the-shelf replacements available for anything.

If you’re able to find and attend anything like these in your area, I’m certain that the organisers would welcome your participation and the support that your attendance would provide.