Shrinking church attendance throughout much of Europe is forcing church leaders to face a troubling question: What can be done with the thousands of enormous churches, chapels and monasteries that no longer receive enough use to justify the high costs of their maintenance?
In much of Europe church attendance began a serious slide in the 1960s before plummeting in the 1980s. Consequently, unused churches are scattered throughout Germany, France, Britain and other northern European countries. Many have simply shut and locked their doors.
In Germany and France, churches receive some government support, so churches that would otherwise close have remained open. In the crowded Netherlands, however, where some 40 percent of the Dutch claim to belong to no church or religion, a cash-strapped clergy has sold more than 250 church buildings and properties in the last two decades. Many were converted into cultural centers, libraries, apartments, shops and even discotheques. (Source: The New York Times .)
