August 1, 2023
Submitted by Brendan O’Sullivan-Hale, Canon to the Ordinary for Administration and Evangelism, Diocese of Indianapolis and Linda Buskirk, CBCP Project Director
With a final flurry of tours and community meetings at Episcopal churches all over the state of Indiana, the Church Buildings for Collaborative Partnerships (CBCP) project reached a major milestone at the beginning of May. Teams from congregations, diocesan staff, Indiana Landmarks, and Partners for Sacred Places have now visited and documented the shareable spaces of every Episcopal church building in the state of Indiana.
The goal of the project, funded by Lilly Endowment, Inc. through its Thriving Congregations initiative, is to encourage congregations to open their buildings deliberately, seeing them as assets to be shared with the wider community. The site visits were the culmination of a process that helped congregational teams invite community leaders into their buildings to think creatively about how they can fill gaps in each church’s geography.
The tenor of the visits was as varied as the buildings themselves. At St. Thomas/St. Tomás in Plymouth, the CBCP team invited representatives offering diverse perspectives from government, social service agencies and the arts. Since the Site Visit, St. Thomas/St. Tomás chose to partner with a local performing arts school to use its historic parish hall and downstairs rooms to offer music lessons, recitals, and “Mommy and Me” classes. Also, the local health department will schedule quarterly health fairs targeted to the Hispanic community.
Often in CBCP, the Site Visit experiences revealed the power and blessings of convening community conversations. That was true at St. Paul’s Mishawaka. Community stakeholders who came to that Site Visit discussed the needs of women and families in crisis, food insecurity, and education. Mishawaka Mayor David Wood and others helpfully clarified the advantages and assets of St. Paul’s location as new neighbors, including the United Way, move in and make long-term investments nearby.
CBCP is now offering practical tools to make it easier for congregations and potential space sharers to connect. The dioceses of Northern Indiana and Indianapolis are partnering with Venuely, a non-profit provider of a web-based tool for scheduling and managing space sharing. Its functions include calendar, reservation, and payment services that make it easy for churches to let potential users know what spaces are available and when. The CBCP partnership is the first time Venuely has offered its services outside the New York City metro region. The service will be offered to all congregations at no charge, beginning with a pilot group of nine churches, including two in EDNIN: St. Augustine’s, Gary, and Trinity, Michigan City.
Recently, CBCP attracted national media attention. In a Slate.com article about the growing problem of empty and abandoned churches, CBCP offered a counterpoint to a fatalistic view about the future of church-owned properties. “We owe a debt to our ancestors,” Indianapolis Canon Brendan O’Sullivan- Hale is quoted as saying, “The church did a good job of acquiring prime real estate, and there’s value to communities in real estate being controlled by an organization without a profit motive.”
For more information about CBCP, contact Project Director Linda Buskirk.