Image source: Barry Stephenson
an online portal and resource for the study of church closure and transformation
The After Church Atlas is 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.
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.
