Buffalo FINALLY has snow. Now, usually this isn't particularly noteworthy. The first snow comes about seven minutes after the last snowfall of the year (no, I don't exaggerate), except for this year. There was a smattering of snow around Christmastime I'm told, and a freak storm in October, but until Saturday there was no real snow. Even now there is only about two inches. The wind has been really fierce, though.
My internship started today at Preservation Buffalo Niagara. This organization is devoted entirely to preserving Buffalo's historic treasures. Unlike other, more expansive cities such as New York City or even my native Allentown, PA, Buffalo rarely tears down old buildings. Sure, it happens, and Buffalo is hardly a green or preservation friendly city. However, who wants to be going to all the trouble and labor of tearing down an old building and putting up a new one when it is freezing cold outside?
Thus, churches get reused or refurbished. A new congregation buys up the old building from a faltering one. A charter school opens in an old German parish. Or, in my favorite Buffalo adaptation of a church building, a swanky condominium replaces the diocesan convent. In and among this reuse, the life of the city simply goes on without heeding the preservationist's call for history or the progressive's call for modernization.
My internship, as should be obvious, deals with churches and the historic integrity of their buildings. As might also be obvious, I love churches for their own sake. I am a deeply religious person fascinated by the urban church. It seems strange that today in the minds of many evangelicals that the church is a rural, or at least non-urban, institution. Our largest churches are all suburban megachurches, while our mainline urban parishes dwindle and other churches splinter.
And yet, on Buffalo's East Side, the life of the church continues. The pastor at True Bethel Baptist Church, Darius Pridgen, runs an organization that is part typical African-American charismatic, part social services organization and part business. His church buses congregants in on church buses, where they can worship in a converted shopping center or eat at a Subway. Do not be cynical, however, for the pastor was the first person in the church to receive the training to run the Subway. This isn't commericialized church, but a church actively engaged in commercial, social and even governmental activities. Pridgen is a quite controversial city councilmember.
So it will be interesting to trace the past and present strengths of the urban church in Buffalo. How have the types of churches changed over time? What is their attitude towards church buildings and finance? Where did immigrants settle, and how did this shape the current situation of urban churches in Buffalo? Why are German Catholic parishes dwindling, but African-American charismatic Catholic parishes moving in to the same buildings? Why did certain ethnic groups flee the city, and what will bring them back?
Mystery upon mystery.
My internship started today at Preservation Buffalo Niagara. This organization is devoted entirely to preserving Buffalo's historic treasures. Unlike other, more expansive cities such as New York City or even my native Allentown, PA, Buffalo rarely tears down old buildings. Sure, it happens, and Buffalo is hardly a green or preservation friendly city. However, who wants to be going to all the trouble and labor of tearing down an old building and putting up a new one when it is freezing cold outside?
Thus, churches get reused or refurbished. A new congregation buys up the old building from a faltering one. A charter school opens in an old German parish. Or, in my favorite Buffalo adaptation of a church building, a swanky condominium replaces the diocesan convent. In and among this reuse, the life of the city simply goes on without heeding the preservationist's call for history or the progressive's call for modernization.
My internship, as should be obvious, deals with churches and the historic integrity of their buildings. As might also be obvious, I love churches for their own sake. I am a deeply religious person fascinated by the urban church. It seems strange that today in the minds of many evangelicals that the church is a rural, or at least non-urban, institution. Our largest churches are all suburban megachurches, while our mainline urban parishes dwindle and other churches splinter.
And yet, on Buffalo's East Side, the life of the church continues. The pastor at True Bethel Baptist Church, Darius Pridgen, runs an organization that is part typical African-American charismatic, part social services organization and part business. His church buses congregants in on church buses, where they can worship in a converted shopping center or eat at a Subway. Do not be cynical, however, for the pastor was the first person in the church to receive the training to run the Subway. This isn't commericialized church, but a church actively engaged in commercial, social and even governmental activities. Pridgen is a quite controversial city councilmember.
So it will be interesting to trace the past and present strengths of the urban church in Buffalo. How have the types of churches changed over time? What is their attitude towards church buildings and finance? Where did immigrants settle, and how did this shape the current situation of urban churches in Buffalo? Why are German Catholic parishes dwindling, but African-American charismatic Catholic parishes moving in to the same buildings? Why did certain ethnic groups flee the city, and what will bring them back?
Mystery upon mystery.
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