Faiths adapt sites to meet needs

Not all worshippers in the Salt Lake Valley have the luxury of debating the merits of traditional vs. modern churches. They've had to learn to adapt.

That often means using a building that was not originally intended as a place of worship — or for their particular faith. Some use hand-me-down buildings from other churches; others find themselves meeting in old office buildings or nightclubs.

Here's how some of those smaller faiths have learned to make do.

• The valley's Sikh population made its Sikh Temple of Utah in a former wedding reception site at 4897 S. Redwood Road. A traditional Sikh temple is called a gurudwara, said Kashmira Singh, granthi (priest) of the Sikh Temple of Utah.

The original gurdwara, meaning "doorway of the Saints," is in the Punjab region of India and was finished by the last of the faith's 10 saints in 1604 and sets the protocol for all other temples.

A gurdwara must either be a square or rectangular and have a dome over the place the Holy Book sits during prayers and readings. The dome makes the area sacred and prevents anyone on the roof from walking over the book. There often are smaller, lower domes on the corners of the building, and there are often two halls, one for the Holy Book and another for the communal meals that are an essential part of worship.

The community hopes to one day buy a plot of land and construct a traditional temple.

"People will feel that building is a religious one. It will develop in their mind the religion to which the building belongs," Granthi Singh said. "Religions have distinct buildings."

• Shiite Muslims in the valley attend the Alrasool Islamic Learning Center at 470 E. 3180 South. It is a small simple building in a residential neighborhood that used to be a Christian church. It lacks the ornate decorations of a traditional mosque, like the Sunni-dominated Khadeeja Islamic Center at 1019 W. Parkway.

Ghulam Hasnain, member of the learning center's executive council, said he likes it that way because the building is more utilitarian.

"We chose not to convert it to a mosque, so we call it a learning center. If we called it a mosque then it would be a place for prayer, no more, no less. We need prayer, but we wanted a place that's multipurpose," he said.

Many customs that make Shiites unique are better facilitated by something other than a mosque.