Sacramento’s Pioneer Congregational Church, founded in 1849, has listed its Midtown building for $3.2 million as its 50-member congregation struggles to maintain it, and hopes a buyer will let it stay.

First and St Stephen’s United Church of Christ in Towson, Maryland, sold its building for $1.1 million to a local resident who is letting the congregation keep using it free of charge until September 2026.

In Carthage, Texas, a growing Assemblies of God congregation and a Baptist church that needed less space swapped buildings with no money changing hands. Both churches then grew by about 30 per cent.

Greater Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Pascagoula, Mississippi, founded in 1895 as Aimwell Baptist Church, held a mortgage-burning service to celebrate becoming debt-free, a milestone its 91-year-old pastor greeted with thanks.

Greenville’s Second Presbyterian Church, grown from 400 to more than 750 members, plans a $10 million downtown expansion funded by donations, parking income and a loan, ending with a 900-seat sanctuary.

Hurricane Melissa destroyed the Porto Bello Pentecostal Worship Centre in Montego Bay. About 30 members worshipped under two tents on the site as the pastor said they must pool their resources to rebuild.

The United Methodist Church sold Baltimore’s 153-year-old Mount Vernon Place church for $500,000 to a local nonprofit, which leases space back to the congregation for $100 a year and plans an $8 million-plus restoration.

More than 100 Japanese churches close each year and half of Protestant churches may close by 2030, OMF reported, as a post-war building boom leaves too many buildings for an ageing church.

A 1908 church in Glen Ullin, North Dakota, whose congregation fell to fewer than 10 members, has been listed for $70,000, with members hoping a family will turn it into a home.

Church in the Circle, the Methodist congregation behind Cleveland’s 1928 ‘Holy Oil Can’ landmark, has listed its 54,000-square-foot building on 1.64 acres in University Circle, citing maintenance costs and declining membership.