Challenges and Opportunities of Transforming Sacred Spaces: Developing a Liturgical Criteriology on the Basis of Case Studies in the Region of Aachen and its Environment

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The liturgical sub-project aims to analyse the field of tension between space and actors in the spectrum of transformation variants in the exemplary study area "Aachen" (Roman Catholic diocese and the church districts of Aachen, Jülich, Gladbach-Neuß and Krefeld-Viersen of the Protestant Church in the Rhineland as well as some comparative objects). The aim is on the one hand to develop a new concept of "sacrality" against the background of today's crisis phenomena in society and church, and on the other hand to formulate decision-making aids for the further use of sacred spaces. The project is based on the hypothesis that, as a result of the sociological changes in religion, Christian sacred spaces are losing their primary function as spaces for liturgical congregations, but are nevertheless indispensable as public spaces. Insofar as they have always had an excess of meaning as heterotopias, they can become places of communication, integration and socialisation for a plural society in the 21st century. In addition to the monitoring and evaluation of transformation processes, the aim is to analyse and reflect on the effects of recent crisis phenomena on the perception, use and management of space, also in the context of the restructuring of pastoral care units in dioceses and regional churches. In contrast, spatial potentials that are to be elicited spatially aesthetically and ritual-analytically will be determined. From the analyses, some of which were already carried out in the first phase of the project, options for action and criteria will be developed, which will be tested in exemplary transformation processes. The interactions resulting from new intercultural or interconfessional or interreligious contexts are relevant here. The findings are bundled in monographs in which the contours of a hybrid sacred space are presented from the perspective of interdisciplinary liturgical studies.