I'd love to live in a refurbished Catholic church. We'd have to pull out the pews and such, but I dig the stained glass, stone walls, and the general artistry. If it's good enough for God, it's good enough for me.
Update:
I can understand why many parishoners are upset over losing their churches, but that's part and parcel with belonging to a huge, centrally-planned church, the administration of which the members have very little say over. Even if the members at the closed churches had given more, attended more, or whatever, the decision on which buildings to sell was probably entirely based on such mundane details as property value and location.
Ack ! Sorry about the triple trackback. Made two updates in quick succession. Forgot it worked like that.
When I was in Liverpool I cam across a church that had been turned into a indoor rock climbing center. Could climb all the way up tot he top of the inside of the steeple.
SS: No prob.
JB: That's an excellent idea! I think a church would also make a great art gallery.
I always thought it would be cool to live in a church but I'd want to keep at least one pew as a couch - might have to add a little padding though. Also, after watching the "Simpsons" episode where Homer sued the church and moved into it, I wondered how many other people thought about the same thing.
P: I don't think I've ever seen that episode!
Turning serious for a moment, the only reason I've ever heard for a church to be closed down was that it was not only losing money but was bleeding funds so badly that the rest of the church couldn't afford the subsidies.
My current church is being rented out to us for $1 just to keep it from closing down. The prior congregation was considered viable at 12 members. When they dropped down to 9 (due to deaths from illness and old age) and had no hope of ever growing again (they were hiring a priest per service and had zero evangelism going on) they were told that's it, the diocese couldn't afford that loss level anymore.
When the choice is between funding hospital care for the indigent and subsidizing one more big church that is in a death spiral, the emotions are very wrenching but the decision has to be made.
I 90/94 in downtown Chicago passes by massive church after massive church. They closed one down (St. Boniface) and the remaining parishioners went a few extra blocks to one of the other churches. To rehab St. Boniface for services would have cost several million. It's huge and maintenance has gone down the tubes.
In all of these cases, these churches have survived long past the date where a non-centralized administration would have closed them down because they couldn't afford the building maintenance and would be facing city condemnation for unsafe conditions. Sometimes, such churches turn themselves around. A new pastor, a renewed focus on evangelization can change things remarkably quickly. I've been in two such places that have dropped down into the teens, only to recover (neither had the overhead of property).
TML: Makes sense. Thanks for the perspective.