The BBC carries a story today about a group of Muslims in Swansea, Wales, who plan to move from their current facilities to a derelict church. What is striking are the pictures of the two buildings. Here is the storefront presently in use:
And here is the former St Andrews United Reformed Church, bought by a Muslim group in 1997:
Comment: If Turks could take over the Byzantine church style in Anatolia and make it their own, Muslims in the United Kingdom can make the Church of England style theirs. (Dec. 23, 2004)
Jan. 2, 2005 update: I made a mistake in the above: the United Reformed Church is not part of the Church of England. Formed in 1972 by the union of the Congregational Church in England and Wales and the Presbyterian Church of England, it is part of a different ecclesiastical tradition, as its church architecture. But my point remains, for URC churches can no less be absorbed than the C of E's.
