{"id":4185,"date":"2015-09-17T14:25:46","date_gmt":"2015-09-17T14:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/what-real-estate-battles-say-about-church\/"},"modified":"2024-08-07T23:18:08","modified_gmt":"2024-08-07T23:18:08","slug":"what-real-estate-battles-say-about-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/crcc\/what-real-estate-battles-say-about-church\/","title":{"rendered":"What Real Estate Battles Say about Church"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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What Real Estate Battles Say about Church<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n
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\n\n \n Commentary\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n By<\/span>Richard Flory<\/a><\/strong>\n \n September 17, 2015<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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This post also appeared on Huffington Post Religion.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

What makes a church, a church? Is it the buildings? The programs? The members? These questions come to mind with recent real estate transactions involving (formerly) sacred ground.<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles real estate battle over a former convent involving pop star Katy Perry<\/a> has attracted great attention, but it’s not the only controversial sale of church property in Southern California.<\/p>\n

In Newport Beach, the L.A. Episcopal diocese has apparently decided that townhomes should replace a local church<\/a>. In May, unbeknownst to its ministers or parishioners, Bishop J. Jon Bruno announced that the diocese had sold St. James the Great Church for $15 million to a local developer who has plans to build pricey townhomes on the site.<\/p>\n

These two examples are the leading edge of what is likely to be a more common occurrence—churches being sold for their real estate value because of declining memberships and aging parishioners who can no longer support the needs of the physical plant. We saw this with the Crystal Cathedral<\/a>. Both it and St. James the Great are wealthy, but small and aging, congregations.<\/p>\n

So, what exactly is a “church”?<\/p>\n

The St. James the Great leadership and members have focused on their building (and understandably so), stating on their “Save St. James the Great” website<\/a> that the Episcopal diocese is “selling the soul” of the church.<\/p>\n

\"StJames-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

St. James the Great is a young church, started after the original St. James Church withdrew from the U.S. Episcopal Church and aligned itself with the Anglican Church in North America. The new St. James the Great invested in building this mission congregation into a successful church, given only 20 months within which to do it, although apparently they were never apprised that the clock was ticking on their efforts.<\/p>\n

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this whole deal was a long-term real estate play from the beginning. In 2013 the diocese won a long court battle over the same property with the former congregation, which wanted to keep the church building. The diocese may have planned to sell the property after winning it back from the break-off church all along.<\/p>\n

But, if we look at either the Anglican St. James or the Episcopal St. James the Great, neither church is attracting large numbers of members, nor are they attracting very many younger members and their families. These are, to put it bluntly, older, white, upper-middle class churches that maintain a liturgy that appeals to fewer people these days<\/a>.<\/p>\n

St. James the Great is located in a town where many people are at the beach or brunch on Sunday mornings<\/a>, and it is also situated in a vibrant local religious marketplace. Within a couple of miles of St. James, there are no fewer than a dozen churches of all types, including another Episcopal church, several megachurches, a franchise outlet of Saddleback Church (the megachurch from south Orange County) and other smaller churches. Their future is dependent on their ability to compete with whatever these other churches have to offer their current and potential members.<\/p>\n

There are people within the L.A. Episcopal Diocese—including Bishop Bruno—who both recognize the problems facing the church, and are supporting experiments within the church to see if other forms of congregational life might be developed that also maintain ties to the older traditions.<\/p>\n

Through the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture’s research on religious creativity and innovation<\/a>, we’ve seen several examples of such experimental Episcopal congregations in the L.A. area: Holy Spirit Silver Lake<\/a>, which meets in an art gallery space above a restaurant; Thom’s in Huntington Beach<\/a>, which now is focused almost entirely on their Laundry Love<\/a> efforts (serving others is “church” for them); and perhaps the most successful to date, Thad’s in Santa Monica<\/a>, which meets in the Bergamot Station Arts Center.<\/p>\n

Watch a video about Laundry Love:<\/strong><\/p>\n