The New Futures: Former Places of Worship programme goes to Belgium
This week, on Thursday the 22nd and Friday the 23rd of October 2026, DTAS’s New Futures: Former Places of Worship programme will be going to Leuven, Belgium, to participate in the biennial Future for Religious Heritage conference.
Future for Religious Heritage is a Europe-wide independent, non-faith, and non-profit network of organisations and institutions working to protect religious heritage buildings across the continent. This year’s conference is titled ‘The time is now: How to future-proof religious heritage together’ and will focus on how a holistic approach and policy frameworks can help ensure that religious heritage remains relevant, resilient, and accessible for generations to come.
The New Futures team will be giving a presentation and taking part in a panel discussion as part of the workshop ‘Financial instruments to secure the future of religious sites’. The workshop will be moderated by Dr Roel Ridder, Coordinator of the Flemish Platform Toekomst Parochiekerken, or ‘future for parish churches platform’, and Bart Aerts, Partner at Leidsman.
Our presentation will focus on the Scottish context, exploring how Scotland’s mature landscape of community ownership, supported by a developed framework of community rights and powers, has enabled community ownership to be a viable response to the large-scale disposal of ecclesiastical buildings by Scotland’s Churches.
We will also be sharing our learning from the programme so far, explaining the unique circumstances of community organisations looking to purchase church buildings in Scotland, the themes we have seen throughout the programme, and the specific challenges and opportunities presented by the ownership of these treasured heritage buildings.
DTAS is looking forward to showcasing the work of the New Futures programme at the international level and highlighting the excellent work being done by community organisations across Scotland. We hope that the Scottish context, and the community ownership of church buildings, will provide inspiration and learning opportunities to conference attendees from across Europe.
We’ll be sharing our thoughts and key takeaways from the Future for Religious Heritage conference over the next few weeks. Follow our journey to Belgium on our social media: LinkedIn, Instagram at @developmenttrustsscot, and Facebook at @DTAScotland.
