Beware Greeks bearing gifts

Another day another AGM, this time at Cragg, a small community of 700 with a school, a pub and a church. Not doing too badly really but a bit battered after a year trying to get its plans for regeneration sorted out. As a church we have too buildings one which is great for disabled access but it's a church, the other is aweful for disabled access but its a much loved old community centre. The answer became obvious to us, sell the community centre and use the money to create a modern multipurpose centre in the church.
The problem is trying to persuade people that sacred and secular can exist in the same space.
We have been trained from Greek times to separate things: spiritual and material, church and state, male and female, adults and children, science and religion. Our instincts in the west are all about maintaining these divisions... unfortunately in the world of regeneration it is all about partnership we have to find a new way of working. In doing this we should not be surprised at resistance, after all we have three thousand years of separation to undo.