Local religious communities across the country are grappling with shrinking congregations, deferred building maintenance and the lure of rising land values. Through HCF’s annual National Endangered Places of Faith Roundtable, we are supporting efforts to find solutions to Canada’s places of faith in crisis. For inspiration, our website will be featuring a series of success stories on how places of faith are being preserved and adapted to new uses in our communities. The first in the series turns to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Partners for Sacred Places helped turn the once vacant and neglected Calvary United Methodist Church into the home of five active congregations and a range of secular activities. A non-profit, non-sectarian organization, Partners for Sacred Places is dedicated to the stewardship and active community use of older religious properties in the U.S. Case Studies Places of Faith: Successful Adaptations Brief History Calvary United Methodist Church is located on 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue in West Philadelphia. The church was built in 1906-07 by New York architects William R. Brown, George Curtis Gillespie, and Henry Clay Carrell. Although the exterior of the building is English Gothic, the interior is atypical. In addition to Calvary’s collection of stained glass windows—which includes two immense Tiffany windows in the sanctuary—a massive stained glass dome is unique to the church.
The Community Steps In Determined to keep the stained glass windows at Calvary United Methodist Church, the community approached the congregation to help find alternatives that might secure the landmark building’s future. With the help of the United Methodist Bishop, the stained glass dome was returned to Calvary while congregational members and community leaders sought out possible new uses for the site. The goal was to find ways of generating the revenue needed to keep Calvary functioning as a place of worship. As it happened, the community was looking for an activity centre and a space for the cultural arts. Support and Funding Funding for the restoration and conversion projects at Calvary was spearheaded by Partners for Sacred Places, a national, non-sectarian, non-profit organization committed to helping congregations and their communities sustain and actively use older and historic places of faith. With New Dollars/New Partners—a program designed to generate financial support from sources outside the religious community—funds have been successfully raised A separate non-profit organization, Calvary Center for Culture and Community (CCCC), was created by Calvary United Methodist Church to not only develop programs, but fundraise to rejuvenate the building. Its success has resulted in the masonry being repaired, the gables restored, the attic insulated, and the sanctuary transformed from a crumbling storeroom to a vibrant theatre space. The Future The CCCC continues to raise money with a $2 million restoration campaign under way. Visit www.calvary-center.org for more information. To learn more about Partners for Sacred Places, visit www.sacredplaces.org. HCF would like to thank Masters in Heritage Conservation candidate Nicole Sammut for her contribution. Places of Faith: Greening Sacred Spaces By Nicole Sammut
Brief History Holy Cross Parish is a Roman Catholic Church located on Walkley Road in Ottawa South. The parish was founded in 1966 to accommodate new subdivisions in the area. The modern-style church with its unique roof design and floor plan was completed three years later. At Holy Cross Parish it is not just the building that is unique; the congregation has made a conscious effort and commitment to “going green.” With the help of Faith & the Common Good, Holy Cross Parish is finding eco-friendly alternatives to conserve energy and reduce waste that will help sustain the building and the environment. Faith & the Common Good is a Canadian interfaith network organization committed to helping different faith communities connect their beliefs with eco-sustainable goals. Through their Greening Sacred Spaces Program (GSS), Faith & the Common Good helps congregations establish a greening initiative based on the needs of their building. The organization’s Green Audit—a fee-based service—offers solutions for achieving a more environmentally friendly building. The program provides workshops, conferences, resources and funds for its energy audits in order to promote energy efficiency and sustainability.
Meeting the Green Challenge The integration of greening activities within Holy Cross Parish Church began in 2006 with the Mission Peace and Development Committee. John Dorner, the current Green Facilitator in Ottawa and a member of the committee, attended a GSS meeting where he was introduced to the greening program. The GSS initiative focuses on the trouble zones typically found in churches that include poor insulation, inefficient furnaces, leaky windows and costly lighting systems.
At Holy Cross Parish, Dorner was able to find the funds and support needed to complete a green audit. Resulting recommendations included installing an energy efficient lighting system in the church basement, using variable frequency fans to circulate the air to other spaces of the building, implementing a new central system for heating and ventilation, and purchasing LED Christmas lights for the church’s exterior. In addition to these changes, Holy Cross Parish has a number of retrofits planned for the near future that will be implemented according to cost and priority. The next project will see improvements to the lighting systems elsewhere in the church at an estimated cost of between $50,000 and $60,000. Other action items include adding insulation to the office, upgrading and installing storm windows on single windowpanes, insulating the hot water tank and exposed hot water pipes, sealing holes around radiator pipes and replacing old refrigerators with new Energy Star ones. With the green audit accomplished and retrofits planned for the near future, environmental stewardship and greening solutions are being integrated within the life of the church. Greening initiatives have also reached beyond the church building to include outreach activities. Currently, Holy Cross participates in the Think Recyclable Program organized by the Grannies to Grannies campaign. It involves a number of local churches that help raise funds for African grandmothers by collecting recycled cell phones and laser ink cartridges. In addition, Project Porchlight invited the youth of the parish to participate in the distribution of compact fluorescent light bulbs to the congregation to promote energy conservation. Also, the hospitality committee now uses non-disposable dishware and fair trade coffee for their events to minimize waste, and to support fair and ecologically sound labour practices. The Future By integrating their faith with actively caring for their church environment, Holy Cross Parish has successfully adopted greening initiatives that will make the building more energy efficient while reducing the associated maintenance costs. As well, environmental stewardship has extended into the community through the distribution of Greening Sacred Spaces Energy Action Planners, and through weekly social justice and environmental news in the church bulletin. To find out more information on Greening Sacred Spaces, please email: info@faith-commongood.net or visit Faith & the Common Good at www.greeningsacredspaces.net. |
Changing demographics in the 1970s left a dwindling congregation unable to support the escalating maintenance costs, and the church fell into disrepair. By the 1990s, the extensive maintenance needs had evolved into structural issues and the congregation decided to sell. Without a buyer, the church lay vacant for a number of years. The congregation eventually reduced the asking price and attempted to sell the stained glass windows and dome separately.
to help maintain and restore threatened religious buildings, ensuring their longevity. Robert Jaeger, a co-director of Partners for Sacred Places, assisted in establishing the Friends of Calvary, a group of community members committed to finding a solution that would preserve the building. After lengthy deliberations, they agreed that the space could serve as both a sacred place and a venue for secular events and a performing arts centre. 
Calvary United Methodist Church and Center for Culture and Community is an active and fully integrated building within the community. It is not only home to four Christian congregations and the Kol Tzedek synagogue, but a space for secular activities. Many organizations have established permanent offices within Calvary while a number of theatre companies have identified the building as the primary location for the arts. Today, Calvary stands as a model example for urban churches. The space still functions as a sacred space, yet it is enriched from the successful community and arts programs that are integrated into this multipurpose facility. 
