10.00  A Future for Our Religious Heritage: A Matter of Co-Operation, Money and Organization

The preservation of many historic churches is, in these years, under serious threat.

Church communities can not afford the costs any longer. Closure and demolition are threatening. Governments want or can no longer guarantee the future of our religious heritage. The private initiative is to move.
De Stichting Oude Groninger Kerken, the Dutch foundation for old churches in the province of Groningen, is an example of a private trendsetting organization dedicated to the preservation and contemporary (re)use of more than eighty churches, synagogues, rectories and historic cemeteries in rural areas. Is such an private organization elsewhere in the world viable?
This paper will show that it is a matter of co-operation, money, organization, perseverance, enthusiasm and … a little luck!