Re-Used and Repurposed...

Anyone who has spent any amount of time browsing through church supply catalogs knows that these things are not inexpensive.  Decent church furnishings are often beyond the reach of smaller parishes and not even close for mission parishes.  Typically, churches without sufficient funds to purchase quality new furnishings are often left with choosing between going without, settling for something sub-standard, or attempting to build their own.  I would submit there are other choices.

Choice one is eBay.  You can find any number of quality church furnishings on eBay for a pittance of the cost of new.  My own parish was able to purchase two sterling silver chalices (matching in style but from different sellers).  The cost of these sterling chalices ended up being less than $600 each when the cost of refurbishing was included (no dents, just a desire to make them look new and this was not essential but our choice).  These are heavy silver chalices originally made by Gorham in the late 1940s and 1950s.  Neither of them had an inscription and now both happily serve the Lord here.  We also found on eBay a bronze tabernacle in pristine condition (still selling for $3,000 but purchased for $178 shipping included), a simple set of stations of the cross (selling for $1600 but purchased on eBay for $39 shipping included), and four solid oak prie dieux and matching sedelia (clergy chairs for $600 shipping included).

I have seen wonderful wood carved crucifixes of substantial size (8 foot cross and 5 foot corpus) that sold for under $2,000 and would have been ten times that new.  We have also purchased musical instruments (check out the pipe organs often available for a song).  My point is this, for those on a limited budget, eBay offers a choice.  The inventory changes rapidly and you must be ready to act quickly but it is there...

Choice two are those who specialize in removing church furnishings from parishes being closed.  These resellers are experts in the removal of these items and, while not as inexpensive as eBay, they do offer a wide selection of very high quality items.  Jason's Church Salvage has an eBay store (click here for a look).  King Richards is a full service design and manufacturing business as well as church salvage reseller (click here to check them out).  There is no shortage of places.  You can start with eBay but do not stop there.

Choice three involves watching in the denominational newspapers of your denomination, district, or diocese for those church structures no longer in use.  I have personally been to auctions in which the whole kit and caboodle was literally sold as in -- pipe organ included -- from an historic Episcopal building no longer in use.

My point is not to be exhaustive but to suggest that you can find great quality items to re-use in new places from old places being closed down (from parishes to schools to seminaries to monasteries to convents).  This is not a make do choice but often the makes available to the smaller congregation or a mission quality church furnishings.  Do some shopping.  You might be well surprised...