Church Sale

The Archdiocese of Baltimore raised nearly $10 million from church sales as it closed parishes, but a bankruptcy judge ruled the proceeds belong to parishes and are not available to more than 900 abuse survivors.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore raised nearly $10 million from church sales as it closed parishes, but a bankruptcy judge ruled the proceeds belong to parishes and are not available to more than 900 abuse survivors.

The Margin examined how Canadian churches are redeveloping their land, from Toronto’s Bloor Street United and a Unitarian church sale to a 57-storey tower at Vancouver’s First Baptist, noting that $15 billion in land changed hands as churches closed.

The Margin examined how Canadian churches are redeveloping their land, from Toronto’s Bloor Street United and a Unitarian church sale to a 57-storey tower at Vancouver’s First Baptist, noting that $15 billion in land changed hands as churches closed.

The Salvation Army is selling its Grade B-listed Aberdeen Citadel for £475,000 after flood damage from heavy rain in February 2026 forced the 1896 landmark to close, saying the building no longer meets its needs.

Summer Grove Baptist Church is selling Shreveport’s former South Park Mall, its home for 21 years, for $15 million after attendance fell sharply and the lease of a major commercial tenant came to an end.

Property investor Samuel Leeds offered £225,000, then £250,000, for a closed Methodist church in Darlaston, Walsall, promising to hand it rent-free to a congregation rather than see it converted by one of 16 interested developers.

California’s Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa, in bankruptcy since 2023 and facing 260 abuse claims, listed five more properties including a 12.44-acre Napa Valley vineyard, after selling two unused churches in 2025.

The Archdiocese of New York agreed to sell the ground lease beneath the Lotte New York Palace hotel at 455 Madison Avenue for $490 million, with the money going to clergy abuse compensation and repaying loans from earlier settlements.

Two excommunicated nuns still occupying a 15th-century convent in Belorado, Spain were detained and later provisionally released amid an investigation into whether sacred art belonging to the Catholic Church was sold irregularly.

The Church of Scotland has listed Reay Church, an A-listed building believed to date from 1739 on the North Coast 500 route, at offers over £55,000 after its congregation merged into a new united parish.

Members of a South Florida church say they learned from a listing that their building and four others in the region were for sale by their national denomination, with the West Park church priced at $799,000.

Dublin’s Christ Church Leeson Park, judged too large for its Church of Ireland parish, has been sold to the Romanian Orthodox Church, which raised the money with help from Romania’s Department for Romanians Abroad, donors and its community.

The town of Wilton, Connecticut, is suing the company that bought its former 1864 Baptist church for $500,000 for $142,708.89 in back property taxes, saying the church’s religious exemption should have ended at the sale.

The Church of Scotland has sold 31 buildings to local groups in three years, but communities say weeks-long deadlines leave volunteers unable to raise the money to buy churches and manses.