#churchlandback Canada: Part 4
Redevelopment agreements
We believe that every party engaged in a commitment with one another should have explicit benefit from the exchange. Being intentional about mutual benefit helps avoid paternalism and identifies power within relationships. This is integral to building collective solutions that don’t simply paint over racial monopoly capitalist culture as transformation. Through mutuality, we acknowledge the sacred in each other, in all lofe, and act from that position seeking ways to invest in each other.1
Welcome to Part 4 in this series on "#churchland back where we are exploring models for land-based reparations for the church in Canada. If you are new to this series, you might consider reading some other models. To access all the articles in the series, you can go here.
This week, we are looking at creative examples of dying churches that can no longer maintain their current buildings entering into redevelopment agreements with Indigenous communities for mutual benefit.
Quebec used to be home to 2800 churches but as of October 2023 there are only 400 left.2 Some speculate that this is how all of Canada will go over the next decade. A conservative estimate says that 9,000 churches in Canada will close in that time period.3 Often, the burden of maintaining a large and aging building with a dwindling congregation is the issue. It may be that the congregation is still viable but not in the current building.
Under these circumstances we are seeing a wide variety of responses for redevelopment in the market, and in many cases Quebec has been leading the way. We are familiar perhaps with churches being converted into housing, or even turned over as community assets, but could they also be an asset in the conversation about repair between the church and Indigenous communities? In one city in Ontario a local first nation expressed a need for student housing for university students from the nation going to university in the city. The nation and a church are redeveloping a church building for that purpose. They have also been able to redesign a smaller gathering space in the building for the congregation to continue to meet.
There are a variety of ways that these redevelopment processes can be conceptualized. We are seeing three right now in redevelopment in general where the asset of the church building is being retained for community good. These three models could also be applied to a relationship with an Indigenous nation or group.
Church retains ownership but gives use access to the partner in redevlopment
Church turns over ownership and leases from new landowners
Community Land Trust created
Strengths and weaknesses4 vary significantly between these three sub-models, but in general, comparing this model to the others here is a generalized assessment.
Strengths
There is a strong sense of mutual benefit in this model
If funding can be found and there is community will then space can be re-shaped to meet current needs
Good redevelopment requires building and deepening trust between the involved parties. The redevelopment process, in the best possible scenarios, becomes a way to find and realize a shared dream together.
Weaknesses
Where does the money come for redevelopment? Often, the redevelopment costs are significantly more than the building's original value. Who carries these costs, and what are the implications?
How will power and privilege be managed. All of these models are in danger of falling apart without clear, wise and humble processes for addressing tensions and working through conflict. A conflict resolution process needs to be a part of the working relationship before conflict ever arises.
Redevelopment is inherently stressful. Anyone who has gone through a renovation knows that. This means that it will tax the relationships involved and the parties need to be committed to that process from the get go.
The Centre for Cultural Power, “Constellations Culture Change Fund and Initiative”
accessed July 23, 2024
as reported in the Times of Malta October, 2023. https://timesofmalta.com/article/old-montreal-churches-get-second-life.1062234
as reported by the CBC March 2019. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/churches-closing-1.5150876
At the end of the series we will put all models through the grid of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which is a much more important ruberic for evaluation. Along the way I did want to provide some thoughts about strengths and weaknesses in general even as a way to flesh out the implications of the models.