Chapel

Valley Forge Presbyterian Church in Pennsylvania is converting its vacant former chapel and nursery school into 20 affordable apartments, a $6.2 million project it owns and a housing association will manage.

Historic England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund awarded more than £1 million to repair three London church buildings: a spire under netting in Islington, a roof in Ham and a Sunday-school hall at Union Chapel.

The Catholic Diocese of Honolulu paid $5.8 million for the 1898 Model Progress Building near its cathedral basilica, planning a reliquary chapel, a meeting space and outreach to the poor while commercial tenants remain for now.

Nearly 200 Welsh chapels and churches have closed since 2015, with 300 more predicted, and the National Churches Trust’s Cherish project is giving grants such as £30,000 to reopen a chapel in Aberdare.

Capel Tabor, a 1904 Congregationalist chapel on Holyhead Mountain in Anglesey sold in March 2024, could become two-bedroom luxury holiday accommodation under plans that face extra checks because of the area’s environmental protections.

Capel Wesley, a former Methodist chapel in Gwyddelwern, Denbighshire, said to be over 200 years old and last used as a vestry and store, could become a luxury holiday let under plans promising minimal external changes.

Quebec City’s Wesley Temple, built in 1848 as a Methodist church and later an institute library, reopened in 2015 as the Maison de la littérature public library, which staff say draws visitors with its heritage.

The Latter-day Saints listed their earthquake-damaged 1926 Wells Ward chapel in Salt Lake City for $1.6 million on condition that the buyer demolish it, drawing objections from preservationists and a councillor.

As the Anglican Diocese of the Northern Territory sold St Mary’s Hostel in Alice Springs, Stolen Generations survivors asked for the chapel, a memorial and 10 per cent of the proceeds.

Doncaster’s Grade II listed 1868 Primitive Methodist Chapel on Balby Road, a stripped shell with permission for 10 flats and a four-storey extension, went to auction in July 2022 with a £136,500-plus guide.

The Philippine Court of Appeals affirmed Catholic Church ownership of 7,163 square metres in Aklan, where a chapel has stood since 1903 and a group allowed to build temporary homes in 1990 refused to leave.

Hong Kong’s Methodist International Church worships in Wesleyan House, a 21-storey tower on an 800-square-metre plot with a worship hall, offices, staff housing and a chapel on the top floor.

First Mennonite Church in Mountain Lake, Minnesota, which once drew 400 to 500 worshippers, sold its 1950s sanctuary to a Hispanic Pentecostal congregation and moved into a nursing home chapel as attendance fell to about 40.