Not really sure, this will take some research. It will be some years off yet, so not the most urgent of problems. I think most of us agree that we wouldn’t want to sell it to be used as anything else, the idea of selling it and then it ends up as a tattoo parlor or something is just too much to bear. If we do ever move out of it, after we’ve all taken the pieces we want, we would need to find some worthy way to deal with. Perhaps the fire department would burn it down for us? Or perhaps we tear it down and haul it away? Would someone like to research those, or other, options?
The best idea we’ve had so far is that we make it into a small monastery where Katie could be the Abbess!
If you have any ideas, leave a reply below.
Adding a note here because of the discussion we just had with Andrew Gould.
He made a pretty strong case that we ought to somehow preserve the building as a “heritage chapel”. Keep it a functioning church, even if we just use a few times a year, or during the week or something. I think he convinced most of us. 🙂
He thought that we might be able to find grants for maintaining it since it’s a historical landmark for Michigan. I have pursued such avenues in the past and hit only dead ends. But it’s possible that it might just take more tenaciousness.
May we someday reach the point where we have to make this decision. :-)}.
Here’s what Billy found out about building moving:
https://orthodoxchurchalbion.org/buildingmovingresearch/
I’ll look into the costs of moving our current structure onto this property. This would include costs for the move and a new foundation. I’ll let you know what I discover.
😀
Relatedly, here’s a bittersweet video of the much-admired St Symeon’s parish in Birmingham moving out of their old building into their new one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjFbrQWEqUc&t=489s