Today Cardus is officially releasing the Phase I part of our Calgary City Soul project - an inventory of the physical worship spaces in the city core. The report can be found on the Cardus website.
Attached is the media release that went out this morning.
Calgary’s Centre City Plan: Disincentive to Diversity?
CALGARY, October 20, 2010—The City of Calgary's Centre City Plan may create an unintended disincentive to diversity, to the distribution of vital social services, and to continuing widely accepted social virtues, according to a preliminary study released today by Cardus.
"The Centre City Plan is an impressive document," said Ray Pennings, Cardus Senior Fellow and Director of Research. "But it has unintentionally failed to provide growth opportunities for one element—institutions of faith—that have been at the heart of cities since the beginning of civilization. It failed, in fact, to even mention them."
Cardus' audit, conducted over the summer, analyzed the physical infrastructure that supports the work of faith communities in the area defined by the Centre City Plan. The audit shows there are 25 spaces devoted to worship—mostly Christian churches and one Buddhist Temple—active within the boundaries defined by the Centre City Plan. That plan is designed to provide room and services for 40,000 additional residents in the civic core in the years ahead. There are no synagogues, mosques, Latter Day Saints, Sikh or Hindu temples currently within the civic core.
The study also shows that those 25 existing institutions, in addition to nurturing people's spiritual needs, provide a comprehensive array of social services that contribute to the culture, physical fitness, language learning, and job search and skills enhancement for new and old Calgarians. These congregations also support immigrant transition, food and clothing banks, addiction recovery groups, work with HIV patients, the homeless and single mothers, as well as temporary housing and social assistance for those in need. These spaces are also used for music concerts, performing arts, marriage counselling and childcare for those who live, work in or visit the downtown core.
"While worship itself has always spoken to people's most deeply held beliefs and helped us define what it means to be a human being, it is clear that even for those who do not share those beliefs, these institutions act as incubators for commonly accepted social virtues," said Pennings. "Capping the diversity and strength of institutions that sustain our spirit within our city's core, while limiting their opportunities for growth to the fringes of our society, at the very least requires a thoughtful conversation regarding the nature of the city Calgarians are building."
With the preliminary audit complete, Pennings said Cardus hopes to launch a more comprehensive study of the impact of institutions of faith on Calgary's culture. Cardus is a think tank and ideas lab for social innovation that builds intellectual capacity, social networks and policy alternatives to sustain a wide range of cultural entrepreneurs involved in the study and renewal of North American social architecture. Its team members are scattered across Canada and the US with permanent staff on site in Hamilton and Calgary.
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Media Contact:
Ray Pennings (403)479-4590
rpennings@cardus.ca
A direct download copy of Calgary City Soul Phase 1: Inventory of Physical Worship Space in Calgary’s City Centre is available at http://www.cardus.ca/files/calgaryworshipspaces/
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