Memo #13: Main Street Faith Buildings: Evolving through COVID-19 and Beyond

By: Barbara Myers and Graham Singh, CEO, Trinity Centres Foundation

Image credit: SvN Architects + Planners

Many of Canada’s main streets feature at least one church or place of worship that reflects the early history and character of that community. For many historical main streets, churches, mosques, temples and synagogues have prominent architectural features – think of the spires and grand historic faith buildings of Downtown Guelph, Montreal, Quebec City, Nova Scotia’s Mahone Bay, Medicine Hat and many Prairie towns. And more than that, these places are provide important places for us to gather, eat, celebrate and seek refuge and community.

COVID-19 has put a strain on places of worship much in the same way as other place-based businesses or organizations. For churches, the situation had been bleak prior to the pandemic. According to Revenue Canada, the United Church of Canada and the National Trust for Canada, some 10,000 of Canada’s 28,000 church buildings are likely to shut down in the next 10 years. Congregation attendance and operating revenues have been on the decline for many years, coupled with rising maintenance costs and pressure to retrofit older buildings to reduce energy footprints. Some faith communities are also struggling with finding relevance in today’s society, atoning for historic wrong and reframing their ministry and mission to be meaningful to the next generation.

A 150 plus year old social contract provided colonial land for early Canadians to build churches without any tax obligation. Many of Canada’s finest church buildings were given free land and encouraged to gather second nations of French, English, Scottish, Irish and later other European migrants. This practice of gifting land stopped for new Canadians arriving after the Second World War, but generally land used by a religious organization as a place of worship is exempt from property tax.

As church attendance diminishes to its lowest point ever and building conditions deteriorate, the potential social benefit of many church buildings has become less clear. If the social contract around public support for church buildings is to continue, perhaps more community benefit will need to be extracted.

Hare Krishna on Avenue Road, Toronto

Emerging Leaders, Models and Resources for Faith Buildings

There are a number of emerging leaders, models and resources that are building momentum to reframe the context for churches and places of worship on Main Streets. A new social contract might be established where faith buildings retain a place of worship, but also take on a far more significant social vocation as community hubs as some of Canada’s best thinkers and urbanists are suggesting. Churches can be more than just churches. They are and can be homes to engaging hubs of cultural and community activity.  Some examples: 

Buildings of worship could become well-capitalized, successfully networked and vibrant community hubs. The Ontario Non-Profit Network, Faith & the Common Good, The National Trust for Canada and various related partners very recently published a study (see here) quantifying the importance and vulnerability of this community use.

Workbooks and guides are being written to assist non-profit organizations to organize and operate in faith buildings.  Shared Space and the New Nonprofit Workplace, written by China Brotsky, Diane Vinokur-Kaplan and Sarah M. Eisinger, guides non-profit organizations to find new homes in places of worship, where rents are often affordable and the atmosphere is collegial and community-minded. The book presents a comprehensive overview of shared space as an innovative model; with effective long-term solutions for non-profit organizations' need for stable and affordable office and program space.

Many faith buildings have and continue to serve as important community spaces – child-care centres, places to vote, soup kitchens, food banks, AA meetings, girl guide programs, music halls, etc. 

There is substantial economic value from the community activity that goes on in faith buildings and quantifying the value of this activity will be useful. The Halo Canada Project, directed by Mike Wood Daly, estimates that providing space, facilitating community programs, educating children, meeting family need, serving seniors, and collaborating with community agencies contributes close to $18 billion to Canada’s social economy. For every dollar Canadian congregations are spending, their neighbours are receiving approximately $3.40 in socio-economic impact. It would cost in the billions of dollars to replace.

Faith buildings are being transformed into community hubs and revitalizing communities, main streets and local neighbourhoods. The Trinity Centres Foundation (TCF) is a team of professionals from the social innovation, urban planning, property, finance, management, accounting, legal, government and faith sectors that is demonstrating new ways to assemble, fund and operate churches. This transformation into hubs constitutes a way for places of worship to offset shrinking congregations, create a community identity, and to remain solvent. TCF has community hubs emerging in churches on the Main Streets of Montreal, Toronto, Kitchener, Cambridge, Calgary and Windsor.

Faith properties are being redeveloped to support community renewal and housing needs. An example is Julian of Norwich Anglican Church in Ottawa, which is currently transforming their property into a new collaborative community to include a diverse mix of affordable and below market housing, community space, green space and worship space.

Some cities are encouraging creative use of faith buildings through planning policies. In the City of Toronto for example, a zoning By-law establishes the Institutional Places of Worship Zone, with permitted uses including community centres, day nursery, dwelling units, library, retail stores and secondary suites. It is up to community groups and congregations to work together to realize these expanded opportunities for churches.

Image credit: SvN Architects + Planners

The Call to Action for Main Street Stakeholders

It makes sense for communities to use the resources that faith buildings on main streets offer. And faith communities benefit from being well-integrated into their local communities. With leadership and vision, new models and tools, people could come back to these faith buildings. They may discover that worship in a community hub provides a nourishing combination of Evensong, morning prayer, music, belonging, laughter and community.