케네디언 교회들, 카바레, 레코드가게, 그리고 다른 상업용 장소로 용도변경 성업중, 내가의지하는 하나님은?

나는 주일날이면, 습관적으로 교회출석을 하는 많은 성도들 중의 한사람이다.
그렇타고 믿음이 신실하다고 자부하지는 못한다. 최소한 이세상에서 살아가는 동안에 주위에서 나와 관계를 맺고 있는 많은 좋은 친지분들과 Fellowship하면서, 성경에 따라 할수만 있다면, 욕심 부리지 않고, 남은 생애를 살아갈려고 하는 성도들 중의 하나임은 틀림없다.

그래서 동남아시아, 아프리카, 남미, 중남미, 중동아시아, 남부 유럽등, 여러나라를 탐방할때에도 나는 당당하게 기독교인이라고, 나의 종교를 밝히면서, 그지역 사람들의 협조를 받으면서 여행을 했었다.

오늘 Huffington Post에서 보도한 뉴스는 나의 마음을 우울하게 만들고 말았다.  특히 북미의 캐나다, 미국은 초기 청교도들이 이주해와서, 개척한 땅으로, 세계에서 가장 잘사는 나라들 중의 선두구룹에서 활동하고 있는 자랑스러운 나라들이라고 믿고, 의지하면서 살아왔었고, 앞으로도 그렇게 살아갈것이다. 캐나다는 나의 제2조국이다.

캐나다에 있는 초기개척시대의 많은 역사적 의미를 간직한 교회들이 비기독교인들에게 팔려가면서, 교회의 기능을 잃고, 캬바레, 식당,  Bar, 레코드가게, 콘도미니움, 기타 다른 상업용 Space로 용도변경하여, 교회와는 완전히 다른 목적으로 이용되고 있으며, 또한 사업은 날로 번성중에 있다는 것이다.

1970년대말경에 토론토시내의 서쪽에 있는 Indian Rd.에 있던 교회건물을 당시의 우리젊은 세대들은 자체 교회를 장만한다는 자부심을 갖고, 오래전 침례교회당이었던 건물이, 인도의 힌두교도들에게 팔려서 그들의 성전으로 사용타가 다시 폐쇄되여,텅비어있던 교회당을 당시로서는 거금인 십팔만달러를 지불하고 구입했었다. 폐쇄된채로 오랫동안 방치되여 있었던 교회당건물을 우리들은 직장이 끝나면 교회로 퇴근하여, 다시 교회부서진 곳곳을 고치는데 밤이 새는줄도 모르고 마냥 기쁨에 젖어 Flooring, plumbing,Painting 등등일을 했었고 지붕만을 외주에 의지했었고, 부인들은 아직 겨우 갖난아이로 부터 10살정도된 꼬마들을 돌보면서, 교회 부엌에서 남편들 먹거리를 즐거움으로 준비하여, 하나님을 공경했었던 기억이 있다. 교회 주위에 거주하던 캐네디언주민들도 너무나 좋아했었던 기억이 있다. 그후 직장과 개인비즈니스를 하느라 서로 뿔뿔히 헤여져 같이 믿음생활은 못했지만, 제각기 새로운 삶의 터전에서 신앙생활을 하면서, 오늘에 이르렀다.

   Rob과 Candice Wigan은 Stratford, ON.에 있는 교회건물을 Revival House포 개조한 식당의 주인이다.

세계 여러나라를 여행하면서 깊이 느낀점은, 동남아시아는 철저한 불교국가로, 그들의 믿음생활은 헌신 그자체임을 생생히 목격했었고, 중동지역을 방문해서는 철저한 이슬람신앙생활로, 그들의 이방인 대접은 마치 천사의 대접을 받는것 만큼 극진했었다. 한가지 특징은 이들 비기독교 국가들은 삶의 질이 비교적 북미대륙에 비해 떨어지고 있었다는 점이다. 북미에 거주하는 대부분의 기독교인들은, 신앙에 의지하여  어려운 삶을 살아가기에는 그들의 먹고입는 의식주문제가 완전해결됐다할만큼 풍부해서, 축복의 뜻을 망각하고, 믿음생활과 점점 멀어져가고 있는 대세임을, 오늘 뉴스를 보면서 더 절감하게 됐다.  

이러한 시대적 풍조는 내기억으로는 벌써 40-50여년전에, 유럽에서 부터 시작하여 전세계를 향해 돌풍을 일으키고 있는것으로 기억하고 있다. 초기의 청교도적 개척정신으로 개척한 서구의 나라들은 경제적으로 번영하여, 그열매를 따먹고 자란 젊은 세대들은, 그때부터 신앙에 매달려 살던 세대들과는 달리, 물질 만능주의에 빠져, 무신론자들(?)로 변해, 인생향락에 빠져오늘에 이르고 있다고 본다. 기성세대의 신앙및 교육잘못인가? 아니면 ?  생각이 복잡해진다.

Night peering through the stained-glass windows, the dancer preens like a burlesque black swan at what was once the Mackenzie Memorial Gospel Church in Stratford, Ontario.

It's the SIN Burlesque Erotic Cabaret at the Revival House, and the hall known as "the sanctuary" is packed to the refurbished pews.

In a sultry feathered fan dance, the performer sheds her avian-inspired leather getup, tufts of plumage falling to the floor, until all that remains is downy lingerie.

This playful tension between the sacred and the sensuous is one of the selling points of the Revival House, said Rob Wigan, who co-owns the cathedral-turned-venue with his wife.

Stratford, ON에 개로 개장한 Revival House 식당의 Bar의 술병들이 Pipe Organ과 Altar앞에 가지런히 정돈되여 있다.(2018년 8월10일)

"We're kind of playing off that contradiction," said Wigan. "I often wonder if somebody is having too good of a time, would they look up and think, 'Uh oh. I don't know if I should be doing this in here.'"

The cultural destination is one of scores of shuttered churches across the country that have been resurrected as public monuments to secular devotions ranging from cheese making to rock 'n' roll idolatry.

According to the U.S.-based Pew Research Centre, roughly one-in-four Canadian adults surveyed said they attended religious services at least once a month in 2010, a drop of 16 percentage points over 25 years.

While experts say these ministerial makeovers reflect Canada's shrinking and shifting congregations, Wigan insisted that the 19th-century Gothic cathedral has retained many of its soul-fulfilling functions in its current incarnation.

Rather than offering communion, he said the venue fosters spiritual connections through communal experiences, playing host to glitter-spackled drag shows, wedding bashes for big-city brides and pre-theatre cocktails at its bar backed by dark-wood organ pipes.

"Part of our story is bringing that element of community back to this beautiful place of worship, and place of gathering that kind of lost its touch," he said. "There's a spiritual element to it without it being incredibly religious."

Roman Panchyshyn, owner of Wild Planet Music in Winnipeg's Osborne Village, has a more irreverent take on his business's hallowed heritage.

The sprawling store is a retail shrine to Panchyshyn's rock-star idols, lined with rows upon rows of records and blasphemous musical memorabilia, including a T-shirt that reads: "Smile, Satan loves you."

              Revival House 식당안의 Pew가 있었던 자리에는 고객들이 앉을수 있는 고급 의자들로 채워져 있다

"It's a place of worship, but it's rock 'n' roll worship rather than religious," said Panchyshyn. "If people have disapproved, it's been nothing harsh ... because I'd have to send them to confession.

"You're being watched in here by Axl Rose, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin."

The Theatre Paradoxe, formerly the Notre-Dame-du-Perpetuel-Secours in southwest Montreal, boasts an eclectic events calendar, renting out space for wrestling showdowns, crucifix-themed kink parties and recovery sessions from the Burning Man desert cultural retreat.

But for director Gerald St-Georges, these off-kilter affairs serve to fund what he sees as the theatre's higher mission: providing at-risk youth with technical theatre training to help keep them off the streets and in the workforce.

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"We do the same work the church did before in the sense that it's for the community," said St-Georges. "I don't think we need to take the church's place, I just think we keep doing the best side of the church in the way of helping people."

According to the Quebec Religious Heritage Council, 547 churches in the province have been closed, sold or transformed as of April. The provincial government has allocated $15 million in funding for restoration projects this fiscal year.

Church-flippers have turned this towering real estate into high-wire enterprises like a rock-climbing gym in Sherbrooke, a circus school in Limoilou and an indoor "vertical farming" startup in Saint-Pacome.

In Ontario, only half of an estimated 12,000 historically religious properties still serve as places of worship, according to provincial heritage officials.

 In some areas, these buildings have been converted into temples of self-care, offering services at a spa in suburban Ottawa, a naturopathic clinic in Aurora and a yoga studio in Wellington.

But in cities with sky-high housing markets like Toronto, a number of defunct churches have been retrofitted into luxury residences, said urban geographer Jason Hackworth.

In a 2013 study, the University of Toronto professor found that 23 places of worship had been sold, gutted or torn down, and with 10 more projects underway at the time, he assumes that number has since climbed.

He said these religious developments can pit a community's conservationist instincts against the desires of congregants, some of whom would rather their church be razed than stripped down to its artifice and turned into a "yuppie playground."

We do the same work the church did before in the sense that it's for the communityGerald St-Georges, director of The Theatre Paradoxe

That hasn't been the case at the Star of the Sea Bed and Breakfast in Fergusons Cove, N.S., said manager Eva Kroger.

Having spared the ocean-side chapel from the wrecking ball, Kroger said former parishioners are grateful they can book a room in the building where they were baptized or travel back to their wedding night on an anniversary vacation.

These are the milestones scattered among the debris when a house of prayer is dismantled, said David Deane, a Roman Catholic teacher at Halifax's Atlantic School of Theology.

From a theological perspective, Deane said a church is not confined to its brick walls. But these buildings bear witness to people's lives, shape and are shaped by communities, and the loss of these connections can devastate a congregation.

"There's massive trauma in the community, even for people who don't necessarily go," he said.

"It's a trauma of memory, and community and location. It also, I think, leaves the spectre of a changing world towards an uncertain future."

Despite this existential unease among worshippers, churches have to face the fact that Canada's religious landscape is shifting, said Deane.

While some parishes are declining, Deane said, other churches are growing rapidly, particularly in immigrant communities. He said churches would be wise to embrace a spiritual "entrepreneurship" that is less rigid about denominational divides, catering their services to better reflect the social and spiritual needs of today's congregations.

It's a trauma of memory, and community and location.David Deane, a Roman Catholic teacher at Halifax's Atlantic School of Theology

Fourth-generation dairy farmer Jean Morin could be at the forefront of such a devotional disruption, having brokered an unlikely pairing between church and cheese in his hometown of Sainte-Elizabeth-de-Warwick, a village of 400 in central Quebec.

Having purchased the property for $1, the owner of La Fromagerie du Presbytere spent an additional $1.2 million to transform the church into a multi-purpose facility that could accommodate 40 congregants and tens of thousands of tonnes of ripening cheeses.

While some parishioners have bristled at the strange subdivision, Morin said the symbiotic setup has given the church "a second life."

"I have the benediction of the community," he said. "It's very important for me to keep the heart of the village."

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2018/08/19/church-flipping-revival-stratford_a_23505035/