TABLE OF CONTENTS
3
Update on Partners: New Staff;
Exemplars Project; News from Texas and
Chicago
13
Professional Alliance Spotlight:
Clayton Acoustics Group
24
e are not a think tank. Partners
is a pragmatic, service-oriented
organization. And yet our programs are solidly
based on groundbreaking, academically sound
research findings. We often say, for example,
that our New Dollars/New Partners for Your
Sacred Place training program flows from, and
is founded on, our findings on the public value
of sacred places published as Sacred Places
at Risk. (This is a point that our Associate
Director, Tuomi Forrest, made extremely well
in the Spring 2010 issue of this magazine.)
Contributors List
22
W
FEATURE STORY:
Richard Driehaus Interview
17
21
FROM THE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Professional Alliance Directory
Green Building Feature: Advice from the
Interfaith Coaltion on Energy
ABOUT PARTNERS
Partners for Sacred Places is the only national,
nonsectarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to
the sound stewardship and active community use
of America’s older religious properties.
Programs and Services Include:
•
Training. New Dollars/New Partners for Your
Sacred Place is an intensive program that gives
congregations with older buildings the skills and
resources to broaden their base of support.
•
Regional Offices. Partners offers training,
technical assistance, and capital improvement
grants through its Pennsylvania, Texas, and
Chicago Offices.
•
Workshops and Conferences. Partners’ staff
speaks on a variety of topics at national and
regional conferences.
•
Publications. Some of Partners’ books include:
- Your Sacred Place Is a Community
Asset: A Tool Kit to Attract New Resources
and Partners
- The Complete Guide to Capital
Campaigns for Historic Churches
and Synagogues
•
•
Information Clearinghouse. This web-based
resource provides information related to the care
and use of older sacred places.
(www. sacredplaces.org/information_center.htm)
Advocacy Initiatives. Partners works with civic
leaders, funders, and policymakers, urging them
to adopt policies and practices that provide new
resources to older religious properties.
COVER PHOTO: Richard Driehaus at his
Georgian Revival-style estate in Lake Geneva,
Wisconsin. Photo courtesy of Driehaus
Management.
CORRECTION: In the Spring 2010 issue we
incorrectly reported that Kathy Jordan of the
Art of Glass replicated portions of the oculus
window at St. Bernard’s Episcopal Church. In
fact, she replicated 100% of the window, using
salvaged shards as reference only.
We may not be the Brookings Institution,
but our partnership with the University of
Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice has influenced a new
school of study on the public good generated by community-serving
congregations.
However, we are like a think tank in one respect: we look for opportunities
where research and analysis can lead to new approaches to some of the
challenges that our society is facing. And today, we are undertaking two
important research projects with strong, immediate implications for the
power and impact of our services to sacred places.
In one project, we are measuring the larger “Community Halo Effect
of Sacred Places.” We are looking at the ways in which sacred places
strengthen the economy and health of their neighborhoods, and build
social capital among those who worship and serve there, or are served.
We are completing a pilot of this project in Philadelphia, and the results
promise to be nothing less than astounding. These findings, in turn,
will be translated into practical tools to help congregations measure and
communicate their own community halo effect.
Our second project is documenting opportunities to encourage the
“Arts in Sacred Places.” We are studying over 40 congregations with
older properties in downtown Philadelphia, plus over a dozen dance,
theater, music, and visual arts groups that are looking for sustainable,
affordable homes. We are finding that there is great need and opportunity
to encourage more partnerships between the arts and congregations, and
fully expect to launch a program with this purpose next year.
So no, we are not a think tank, in part because research and policy analysis
is not our primary purpose. However, we believe that Partners is perfectly
positioned to undertake important new research when the time and issues
are right. And certainly we are the right organization to translate findings
into practical services that help congregations make the most of their
buildings as assets for outreach.
BOB JAEGER
Sacred Places • Fall 2010 • 2