to their lives. I suspect the latter is more common.

Other denominations (maybe most of them) built a lot of churches years ago, and for many of the same reasons cited in the article. But now the buildings, built in the late 19th or early 20th century, are deteriorating and have become expensive to maintain, while their members have either stopped attending church altogether or are going to the big, fancy non-denominational mega-churches that have popped up everywhere. These churches are more like movie theatres or sports arenas, seat a thousand or more people, and have all the latest audio-visual bells and whistles. They are attractive to people with short attention spans and who revel in bad pop music, lots of noisy audience participation opportunities, plus the pastors' promises that they'll become rich as a symbol that God loves them (as long as they contribute generously to the needs of the church and its pastor). What the RCC and other traditional denominations lose in membership is being gained by the Prosperity Gospel crowd.

as the RCC. Typically, for protestant churches, each church is owned by its congregation. If that congregation slips in membership, there may simply not be enough people to support the costs of keeping that church open. That's especially true of that particular church needs substantial renovations due to the age of its building or other factors.

Mega churches often don't have that disadvantage. Often, they are located in former commercial properties which have lots of space, but not much character. Sometimes, they're owned by the congregation, and sometimes the church is in leased property. Instead of a shrinking congregation, many of those, through more attractive services, etc., are growing in size.

But, the RCC owns its buildings collectively. They belong to the diocese, in most cases, or the archdiocese. When revenues drop from a parish, for whatever reason, there is a financial imbalance, and churches with larger congregations find themselves paying for churches with shrinking congregations, but increasing costs. So, we have parish mergers or just shutdowns of parish churches.

The central organization structure makes such shrinking more obvious and affects the entire organization, rather than just one, independently owned church.

The United Methodist Church owns all the church buildings, even if they were financed and built by the local congregation. There are other denominations who have the same setup. I believe the Episcopalians have gone to court over this. Presbyterians do not own their churches locally, either.

The Lutherans went on a building spree in the late '50s and early '60s (they seemed to favor Brutalism, and wound up with a lot of butt-ugly churches). I believe their churches are owned or at least controlled by the congregations, but if a congregation dissolves, the church reverts back to the synod. The Episcopal church operates more like the Catholic church the sense that the buildings belong to the diocese and not to the individual congregation, and the diocese has the authority to disband a congregation and sell the church (I know of one recent instance of that situation; the beautiful old church is now a performing arts center - where I will be attending a recital this afternoon).

Megachurches are a scourge - architecturally, artistically and socially.

It is true of Lutherans, Methodists and Church of the Brethren. I don't know how Episcopalians handle things, but I have a hunch they are centrally controlled.

There are dioceses that manage local churches, a governing body for the entire denomination, and there's also an Archbishop (the guy who spoke at Meghan and Harry's wedding), though I think his position is more spiritual than managerial.

However around where I live in North Texas they are still building big ones. You have to remember this is an area where the likes of Copeland still has lots of sheep that need shearing.

have been converted for other purposes. At least they're not letting them sit down abandoned and unprotected as they did at one time, in other parts of the city (stained glass windows broken etc.).

Are people leaving schools because they protect and enable rapists?

civil forfeiture, as assets of a criminal enterprise.

The proceeds should then be transferred to a trust fund to compensate the victims of abuse.