from the President
AUTUMN/WINTER 2018-19
Celebrating a Place of Faithful Service:
Trinity Episcopal Church, Hartford 3
Sacred Places / Civic Spaces 4
Rethinking Real Estate:
Wesley Community Redevelopment 6
Good News from Brattleboro 7
Three Things You Should Know
About Congregations 8
National Fund Spotlight:
Lutheran Church of the Reformation 10
Feature Story: Saving Mother Trinity 12
Professional Alliance Directory 15
P ARTNERS FOR S ACRED P LACES is the only national,
nonsectarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to the sound
stewardship and active community use of America’s older
religious properties.
Partners builds the capability of congregational leadership
for building care, shared use, and capital fundraising through
training programs, fundraising assistance, and organizational
and facility assessments. In the process, Partners becomes a
trusted resource and guide as congregations examine and
weigh opportunities.
Partners engages with congregations to focus on critical
areas such as:
• Asset–mapping and community engagement—assisting
congregations to develop new relationships with neighbors
and potential community partners.
• Strategic partnerships and space sharing—brokering
agreements between sacred places and arts, food justice,
health, education, and social service programs.
• Planning for capital campaigns to support repairs and
renovations that preserve significant historic features and
make spaces usable for new community programs.
• Collaborative initiatives among unrelated congregations in a
neighborhood to encourage coordinated outreach, space
usage, joint marketing and interpretive events, and
coordinated work with public agencies for lighting, signage,
and streetscape improvements.
P
icture the
historic
churches
and syna-
gogues you know
along a continuum.
On one end would
be those that use
every room and
corner of their
buildings every day
of the week; there is
no room for new programs unless they add new space.
On the other end are those that are fully vacant, and whose
future may be very uncertain. You don’t have to be a churchgoer
to be deeply concerned about these places, hoping they will find
new life and new purpose that can respect their character and
history.
There are more sacred places experiencing changes in own-
ership and use—we call them “sacred places in transition” —than
ever before, and so Partners has developed programs and serv-
ices that help a community discern and support a healthy future
for an empty church. The cover story on Mother Trinity Church
in Augusta is a good example of this kind of project, and its reso-
lution is exciting and encouraging.
Because the drama surrounding an empty church is so
great, and because communities worry about their future, we
often get calls from the media about them. However, when I talk
to a reporter about vacant sacred places, I often make the point
that for every vacant church, there may be 50 others that are
partially vacant, i.e., much of their space is underused for most
of the week. I would argue that the vast majority of the congre-
gations with older buildings we serve are in this category. They
are in the mid-range of our continuum—neither fully used nor
fully empty. There lies our challenge and opportunity.
It is Partners’ belief that congregations will be stronger—
and can take full advantage of what their buildings offer for
ministry and outreach—if they proactively address the underuse
of their space. Thus, Partners has developed a set of “community
engagement services” that support faith communities in this
endeavor. For example, we help congregations conduct “asset
mapping”—an assessment of what is strong and useful and im-
portant about their buildings and spaces. We also help congrega-
tions work with the community to identify “external assets,” i.e.,
programs and organizations that could collaborate with the
congregation and find a home in its building.
By “connecting the dots”—connecting a sacred place’s assets
with the community’s assets, a congregation can move from
weakness to strength. Enlivening and activating sacred places
can be an exciting new way for a congregation to live out its
mission and bring new revenue and new energy to an older
property. It is this possibility that we explore in various ways in
this issue of Sacred Places. We hope it provides inspiration and
new ideas for your sacred place, or one you care about.
—A. Robert Jaeger
Cover photograph: Rebecca Rogers, Augusta Canal NHA
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SACRED PLACES • AUTUMN/WINTER 2018-19
In This Issue