UPDATE on Partners:
Pennsylvania Office
IN THE PAST FEW MONTHS, Partners for Sacred Places
has witnessed a surge in interest and concern around
historic religious properties that are shutting their doors
in Philadelphia. Partners’ Executive Vice President
Tuomi Forrest drew attention to the essential community
resources that we lose when this happens in a recently
published Philadelphia Weekly article, “Crossed Out:
Inner-City Churches Crumbling Before Our Eyes.” Not
only do neighborhoods lose spiritual centers and social
service programs, they also risk losing their architectural
icons when closed religious properties are threatened by
demolition, like the controversial case of Church of the
Assumption, where Saint Katherine Drexel was baptized.
In the next five years, Partners predicts that this issue
will grow, as dozens more congregations follow the
path toward closure and possible abandonment or
demolition.
In April, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter reached
out to Partners with an interest in collaborating around
this question: How can resources be spent and decisions
be made most effectively to protect historic sacred places?
Talks with the Mayor, Deputy Mayor Alan Greenberger,
Philadelphia City Planning Commission Executive
Director Gary Jastrzab, and Director of the Philadelphia
Historical Commission Jon Farnham have made it clear
that an effective approach to the issue needs to go to
the heart of the problem – it must help congregations
expand their capacity to avoid closing, let alone face
demolition.
Collaboration with the City has opened up a wealth of
opportunities to better understand and address the
issue of at-risk historic sacred places. It reflects a joint
commitment to rethinking how existing resources can
be more effectively directed to most strategically deal
with the issue, and to seeking out new resources to deal
Philadelphia’s Metropolitan AME Zion Church, built in 1861, was demolished in February 2011 to make way for construction of
six new rowhouses. Photo courtesy of Laura Blanchard.
7 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Summer 2011