These thoughts from Social Life Project relate to ‘placemaking’ and in particular fostering community connection in public spaces. You might be interested in the short documentary, The Place Man.
The ideas may be a catalyst for conversation about the place of churches and faith communities and the use of their property, and ecumenical cooperation and collaboration.
The social life project identifies three crises:
- The climate crisis that has grown out of a dependence on the cars we use to get around our spread of societies that have drifted away from the human scale;
- The severity of the loneliness problem that has largely risen out of this sprawling, disconnected planning and a lack of great public places;
- The divisive politics that reign because we have a hard time seeking things from others’ point of view, since we have no place to interact with those who are different from us.
These crises invite a different way of thinking and planning – one that is focussed on togetherness and the human experience. So many moments are converging and there is a growing realisation about how urgent it is to focus on the places we share and the people we share them with.
[Here’s an article reflecting on ways that places of worship have embraced the public space mindset with their property].
For reflection
=> what might this ‘placemaking’ movement have to say to the ‘placemaking’ that happens in church buildings/on church property?
=> in what ways are church buildings ‘public space’, and in what ways are they not?
=> how are (or may) church spaces used to build social cohesion, and flourishing community connections?
=> what might this idea mean for ecumenical activity, and churches working together – whether ‘same same’ congregations or those that are different from one another.
=> what might this idea of placemaking mean for fostering social cohesion and building relationships that are intercultural and interfaith?
=> Physical spaces – buildings and property – remain some of the greatest resources that churches possess. How does the use of our physical space demonstrate a love for our neighbour? What would it look like if community needs were considered as part of church priorities in terms of use of the property?
=> what theological imperatives underpin discussion about placemaking? (including incarnational ministry)
Further reading
BUV – Blessed are the placemakers
For further reflection
Theologian Willie James Jennings recounts the ways in which the white European church operated on what he calls a “diseased imagination,” building the church and its theological systems on the displacement of people from land and community. These practices were grounded in a misreading of the doctrine of creation, which saw dominion, mastery, and manifest destiny for the elect people of God as the catalyst for exclusion, racism, and mistreatment of both land and people. A redeemed sense of place must both lament this historical past and re-assess the theological ideas upon which it was built in order to establish a more just placemaking practice for the future.