TAP, Inc.and Historic Albany Foundation will continue to build on a 2009 project to safeguard urban sacred sites in the wake of dozens of church closings.
To this end, TAP and Historic Albany will conduct a one-day forum, “Everyone’s Architecture: A Call to Defend Sacred Sites,” to continue to raise public awareness of the magnitude of the problems that urban churches face and the possibilities of overcoming them. The forum will be held on Saturday, October 19, 2013 at the historic, accessible Christ Church United Methodist, 35 State St., Troy.We want to impress upon attendees the appropriate stewardship of these buildings, closed or not, in part by using their outstanding architecture as a rallying point for preservation.
This will spark a grassroots movement to involve the community in the preservation of existing religious buildings and in the appropriate disposition of closed sacred sites. This effort also is meant to encourage people to invest, financially and civically, in the welfare of all houses of worship, which contribute to a sense of place for everyone’s enjoyment and education. Regardless of our backgrounds, this supreme architecture is everyone’s cultural heritage.