Spiritual Building Materials

1. Spiritual Building Materials Greg Smith Credo Consultancy and University of East London

2. Newham’s Faith Groups • Over 300 groups • 181 Christian congregations • Pentecostal majority • 22 mosques • 10 other faiths (Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jewish etc.) • 50 groups began since 1990 • 104 buildings (77% belong to Christian churches)

3. Types of Building • Historical treasure • Victorian worship barn • Traditional mission hall • Settlement centre • Post war rational • Functional conversion • Shop front presence • Modern multipurpose • Rent a space anywhere • Pilgrim congregation

4. Historical Treasure • Usually Anglican • Ancient parish • Set in a graveyard • 3 examples in Newham • One has nature reserve in the churchyard • Two are part of a team parish • Difficulty in adapting for community use • Grade 1 Listed Buildings

5. Victorian Worship Barn • Catholic, Free Church and some CofE. • Problems of Maintenance Cost • Listed Buildings (grade 2) • Some have reordered internally

7. Traditional Mission Hall • Mainly Evangelical or Old Pentecostal • Some limp on, some have renewed and grown • Some have changed hands • A few have adapted buildings through support from (quasi) denominations • One has relocated with a new building funded from LDDC compulsory purchase

9. Settlement Centre • Large Victorian Christian Foundations • Multi Agency Community Work • Few retain own congregational life or spiritual emphasis • Several have converted to housing projects

11. Post War Rational • Replacing what Hitler demolished • or should have demolished • Free church ecumenism (some CofE and RC) • tentatively multipurpose often with totally separate church hall • concrete and glass modernism fails to withstand vandals and heating bills

13. Functional Conversion • Mainly new faith communities • Many Pentecostal and Muslim examples • Use large houses, garages, snooker halls, shops, cinemas, warehouses. • One Anglican has converted the vicarage • Planning Problems over change of use in residential areas

15. CHRISTIAN CHURCHES

16. Mosques, Mandirs and Gurudwaras

17. Shop Front Presence • Many Muslim and Pentecostal examples • Many such properties available often on medium term lease • Avoids major planning disputes • Some preserve quasi commercial uses, e.g. Café or bookshop • convenient for local drop in users

19. Modern Multipurpose • Mainly Church of England • One Hindu example in disused school. • Depend on partnership with state or voluntary sector organisation • Housing, Health service and Community / Youth service examples • Often complete new build • Not always sustainable under faith community management

21. Rent a Space Anywhere • Mainly new churches • especially black majority Pentecostals • rent churches, schools, gym, town hall • often interim stage, wanting to buy

22. Pilgrim Congregation • Using homes and/or minibuses, occasionally rent a venue • Towards the virtual cyber church • Travel light, minimal costs maximum flexibility • Few sustained examples in East London (mostly charismatic, or an order) • Not a proper, visible church?

23. APOSTOLIC OR ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION? • Using redundant places of worship • Chapels, churches and synagogues • become mosques, mandirs, Pentecostal centres • some change owners and uses several times over centuries

25. Contemporary Uses • Redundant churches become, schools, factories, warehouses, housing • Some become secular community facilities • Charity Law demands sale to highest bidder • Some sites are cleared for new commercial buildings

26. ARCHITECTURAL MIX

27. Theology, Mission and Ecclesiology • Is the group for itself or for wider community? • Is the group bound to a single ethnic culture? • Is it willing to adapt to modernity / postmodernity? • Does the group want to recruit? • Is the mission purely spiritual or more wholistic? • Is the group purist or pragmatic? • Will it accept “dirty” money? • Is the group a sect, denomination or church?

28. Material Constraints • Existing built environment • State of the property market • Endowed funds of the congregation or denomination • Mean income of members • Giving levels of members (cash and labour) • Social capital links to people of wealth and power • Legal constraints, e.g. planning and charity law

29. Religious Buildings: A secularisation paradigm • Pre Modern: We build a temple to the glory of, reflecting the image of our God. God dwells there. This building demonstrates the greatness of our city / civilisation. • Modern: We build or just rent a meeting place where God’s people can meet to worship and pray. God is in the midst of the people. In a competitive market the size and quality of the building shows the status of our faith community. • Post Modern: As a spiritual consumer I don’t need a building or even a faith community. If the religious institution keeps a building it must use it to meet other marketable consumer needs.

30. Conclusion • In general faith communities in Newham are firmly in the modern era with regard to their use of buildings. • Material, especially economic, factors dominate decisions about the purchase, renovation and use of buildings.