The future of parish churches in Flanders, Belgium: a dialogue on municipality level

This paper provides an overview of the actual discussion on the future of circa 1800 parish churches in Flanders, the northern Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. Secularisation and dwindling church attendance is similar to the rest of North-Western Europe, but two factors let slightly differ the issue of underused or abandoned churches in Flanders: (1) 99% of Flemish parish churches are Roman-Catholic, (2) the functioning of fabric committees, public administrations which are nominated by the bishop and financially supported by the Municipalities. After a historical introduction, the method which... Mehr ...