This one is for the creation of a charity (or NPC):
The Lighthouse Project.
The gift of space
The institution I work for is one of several places that have a multi-faith chaplaincy. There is a chaplaincy team that provides spiritual support for anyone who needs it, regardless of which religion they belong to (even if they don't belong to one at all). This in itself is quite nice, but the MFC does something else which is (in my opinion) more tangibly useful: they provide a space.
The Chaplaincy building provides a space for groups to meet that they wouldn't be able to afford otherwise. Small faith groups, that don't really have the numbers to be able to qualify as a "congregation" or an "organisation", but still need a place to meet and share their faith together. I'm talking about things like a Tibetan Buddhist group that sometimes has as many as eight people, but normally only has three. Or a Christian denomination from a refugee community that barely rustles up ten people on a good day.
These groups wouldn't be able to hire a space, but thanks to the MFC, they're able to book a room and get together to practise their faith and do a spot of community building. The MFC building also has rooms for meditation and a Muslim prayer room.
It's a fantastic service. Unfortunately it has no money and the building is in serious need of some work. I've been there a couple of times myself to use the meditation room, and I felt not so much "restored" as "bummed out" by my time in that space. I keep thinking fondly of a couple of other chapels I've visited in the past few years, which had a light bright feeling to them and a pleasant outlook from the windows. A pleasant space can make a world of difference when you are seeking spiritual balm.
The curse of space
Now, at the same time, I've been part of several conversations in a few different churches over the years talking about the problem of buildings. Once upon a time, everyone went to church on a Sunday. There may have been a few people who didn't, but most people did - so it made perfect financial sense to have church buildings in every community.
These days the attendance numbers are so low that you can have a church building capable of holding over 200 people that only sees about 30 on a Sunday morning. You might also have an evening service (but, increasingly, most churches don't), and you might have a midweek prayer group or bible study in the church itself - but really most non-Sunday-morning activities for the majority of churches happen in the hall (and that's a whole 'nother building!).
It's worse in the country towns, where there weren't that many people to start off with, the population keeps dropping, and now most people don't attend church on a Sunday morning.
So now you get situations where a small country town has (at a conservative estimate) at least three church buildings (Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian - maybe also Baptist and a couple of others) which are all largely empty for most of the week. Since some of these churches are being run by dioceses that can only afford to send a priest along once a month, they're largely empty for most of the month.
In the meantime, the congregations and churches who own the buildings are still paying rates and insurance and trying to keep up with maintenance on buildings that they can't really afford any more.
The gift of space
So, here's my idea for a charity: The Lighthouse Project.
The Lighthouse Project will be in the "business" of providing a space for all religious/faith groups that need one. They will provide and maintain a building with at least one auditorium and a number of smaller meeting rooms (and a few meditation/prayer rooms). They will be responsible for keeping the building nice and maintaining a garden space to give it good vibes.
Instead of driving themselves bankrupt trying to maintain all of their separate "God Boxes" (as a priest I was talking to once referred to them), the mainstream churches (Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, etc) can hire the Lighthouse in the town. You could probably fit at least six services in the building on the weekend for different denominations, and the meeting rooms would be available to take all of those activities that would happen in the church halls. Other community groups would be able to hire out the space during the week, for running conferences and what have you.
With many hands making light work, the cost of running services in the Lighthouse should be much easier to bear than the cost of maintaining a church, a hall and a vicarage/presbytery/manse/whatever.
The money charged to the "big" faith groups would enable the building to be provided to the small groups (the ones that can't afford to rent a space) free of charge.
The Lighthouse can also provide a secretariat service which is (once again) paid for by the larger groups in order to offer a charitable service to the smaller ones. No longer do small faith groups who have approximately five members - all over the age of 60 and largely computer illiterate - have to work out how to maintain their own website. They can just have a page on the Lighthouse's website, run and maintained by the Lighthouse's staff, so all they need to do is provide up-to-date information.*
A multi-faith space
Essentially, the Lighthouse Project is a multi-faith chaplaincy on steroids. I see a future with a Lighthouse in every town - a beautiful building that provides a pleasant space for people of every faith.
*Yes, I know they will almost never do this.
