The After Church Atlas is an online portal and resource for the study of closure and transformation of worship spaces around the world.

An interdisciplinary and collaborative research project led by Dr. Barry Stephenson (Religious Studies) and Dr. Nicholas Lynch (Geography), of Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland, the Atlas is supported in part by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC-CRSH), the National Trust for Canada, the Trinity Centres Foundation, and Heritage NL. The After Church Atlas is maintained and managed by researchers at the Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research (CIECR) out of Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto.

A key aim of the Atlas is to gather data on the phenomenon, creating a space where researchers, stakeholders, and the general public may effectively share and participate in knowledge production. We are looking into casting a wider net, to gather data on the closure and transformation of places of worship, more generally conceived. In this project, we focus on church closure.

Churches and other ritual and sacred sites may be imagined as having life histories. After they are conceived, they grow, develop, and change; sometimes the buildings eventually die, or parts of them are recycled, or converted for new uses. We are studying church buildings and other sacred sites that have been variously re-purposed, transformed, or abandoned, alongside the complex processes and meanings occasioned by changes in the use of sacred places.

This Atlas will be of interest to researchers, policy-makers, entrepreneurs, educators and the general public. If you are interested in contributing to or using the ‘backend’ search features of the Atlas, or becoming a partner, send us an email. 

The After Church Atlas survey is the main mechanism through which data is crowdsourced for the After Church Atlas portal. Researchers and members of the public can use the survey to contribute to our dataset using their local knowledge of churches that have closed.

Find out more about our current research projects from our research team and students related to the Atlas.

Graduate and Undergraduate Research

Siyi Zhou, MA Candidate, MUN Geography. Adaptive Reuse of Worship Spaces in Contemporary Heritage Cities: A Tale of Three Churches in Ottawa.

Abstract: Over the last decade, there has been a dramatic increase in the reuse of closed (or partially closed) churches into community hubs; dynamic spaces that provide social housing, community kitchens, community events spaces, and other religious and secular-functions. Reused worship spaces that act as shared spaces for local people to gather and socialize can potentially help regain local sense of belonging and reform communities. This research investigates how repurposed worship spaces support community cohesion and impact the formation of contemporary urban landscapes in a heritage city (Ottawa) that has had multiple examples of creative reuse of worship spaces.

Markus Riener, MA Candidate, MUN Geography. Adaptive Reuse of Spaces of Worship into Craft-Beer Enterprises.

Abstract: This project is centered around the adaptive reuse of places of worship in Canada and the United States, in particular Christian churches that are transformed into commercial businesses (craft beer breweries, public houses that sell locally crafted beer, or a combination thereof). The trend of the craft beer economy is a fairly new one as this small-scale and locally focused artisanal craft has seen a revival in the last decades and is now becoming a booming source and center of local cultures across North America. Even though these businesses operate mostly on a microeconomic scale, they have already started to show to be key in being local hotspots for cultural exchange and commerce, especially if the venue is a historic site such as a church. This research investigates the history, the economic mechanics, and potential impacts on local economies and municipalities of church breweries and church brewpubs.

Bryhanna Greenough, BA, MUN Geography. Pathways to Transformation & Mechanisms for Change: An analysis of adaptive reuse of post-institutional buildings in St. John’s.

Abstract: TBA