Christ Church and Christ
Church Burial Ground in
Philadelphia, PA, draw
about 250,000 visitors
annually. The Christ
Church Preservation Trust
manages the tourist and
visitor programs, and
helps to raise funds for
the maintenance and
preservation of both sites.
This emphasis on community use and support has
always been Calvary Center’s goal, and it is what
has made the building such a strong and active
neighborhood center. To help define the scope of
Calvary Center’s purpose, multiple public meetings
were held to determine what people wanted to see in
the space. Calvary Center’s mission explicitly includes
a commitment to supporting the arts, thanks to input
from community leaders, and multiple arts groups
share space in the building.
No matter what your ultimate fundraising and
organizational goals might be, a friends group is
a solid and straightforward place to start. Trinity
Episcopal Cathedral, Christ Church, and Calvary
UMC had very different goals in creating their
supporting organizations. The three congregations also
utilized various organizational routes to obtain their
goals, but at the start of each effort was a small and
unincorporated group of friends with a shared desire
to work together to save a historic sacred place that
mattered to them.
Sacred Places • Fall 2011 • 18