The sale and demolition of a church in Guelph’s south end isn’t a sign that religious institutions in the city are in trouble, a city report has found.
City councillors ordered the report in 2015, after St. Matthias Anglican Church was sold to a developer who planned to build student housing on the site. Two other religious groups had been interested in purchasing the Kortright Road property, only to find themselves outbid by the developer.
Following the sale, concerns had been raised that there was little suitable land available in the city for church groups – and that when a property did hit the market, as happened at St. Matthias, interests with deeper pockets could take it for themselves.
The report, which has been completed and will go before city councillors later this month, found this not to be the case.
It found that 47 per cent of Guelph’s land area has zoning that permits churches or other faith-based institutions.
Additionally, the report found that there is little demand for new religious space in the city. Sixty-five identified faith communities were surveyed, with six responding that they expected to eventually grow out of their current homes.
The recent trend, has been for church groups to work together more often, either by sharing space or by combining their congregations outright. This was even the case with St. Matthias, which merged with another Anglican church in the city.
According to the report, census data shows that the predominant religious affiliations in Guelph remain Catholic and Protestant, although both have seen their share of the city’s spiritual life split since 2001.
Religious communities seeing their Guelph populations grow in recent years include the ‘other Christian’ classification, as well as the Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh faiths.
The number of Guelphites reporting no religious affiliation whatsoever in 2011 was 30 per cent, up from 21 per cent 10 years earlier.
