Four UMCs Awarded National Historic Restoration Grants

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Four United Methodist churches – including the sponsoring congregation of United Methodist Insight – have been chosen to join 11 other awardees from some 300 candidates for historic restoration grants from the National Fund for Sacred Places.

Insight’s sponsoring congregation, St. Stephen United Methodist Church in Mesquite, Texas, joins two Philadelphia UMCs, Arch Street and Calvary, and Mount Zion UMC in Washington, D.C., among the 15 churches nationwide that will receive grants up to $250,000 for the renovation and restoration of their historic buildings. Only 1 in 10 congregations was invited to apply and only 1 in 20 was funded. National Fund leaders said the 2021 awardees are one of the largest cohorts in the history of the program, made possible through funding from the Lilly Endowment, Inc.

The National Fund for Sacred Places is a program of Partners for Sacred Places in collaboration with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In addition to capital grants for brick-and-mortar projects ranging from $50,000 to $250,000, the National Fund will provide training, planning grants and pro-bono consulting services to assure well-planned, successful projects.

“Historic houses of worship contribute significant value to their communities,” said the National Fund in announcing this year’s awardees.

“Sacred places function as hubs for social service programs, the arts, and are vital to human belonging,” said the National Fund website. “Many of these aging and architecturally complex facilities require increasingly diverse streams of funding to be sustained as centers of community life in the 21st-century. The National Fund for Sacred Places was born out of a belief that providing technical and financial support for congregations could build capacity and increase the stability of these critical yet disappearing historic community centers.”

Churches were chosen for the grants according to several criteria:

  • National/Regional Significance: Buildings owned and occupied by an active congregation telling a unique story about its contribution to the landscape of American religion across history.
  • Community Engagement: Congregations making the most of the place as a community asset.
  • Project Scope & Need: Urgent repair needs that require financial support beyond the internal capacity of the congregation.
  • Fundraising Campaign Readiness: The capacity to complete a significant capital fundraising campaign and leverage this grant to raise matching funds.
  • Healthy Congregations; Congregations with strong clergy and lay leadership, financial health, and the energy and support for a vibrant future.

Three of the four United Methodist awardees – St. Stephen, Arch Street and Calvary – are Reconciling Congregations, participating in the LGBTQIA-affirming Reconciling Ministries Network. Mount Zion is the oldest African American congregation in Washington, D.C.

The Rev. Dr. Geoffrey C. Moore, lead pastor of St. Stephen UMC, said the congregation’s grant will contribute to a capital campaign to restore and update its unique mid-20th century “archilithic” building that has been honored by the Texas Society of Architects. In addition, the grant will help fund accessibility improvements to the church’s courtyard, where many community events and worship services are held, Dr. Moore said.

The full list of 2021 National Fund awardees includes:

  • Amana Church Society (Middle Amana, IA)
  • First Christian Church (Columbus, IN)
  • First Indian Presbyterian Church (Kamiah, ID)
  • First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, PA)
  • Grace Episcopal Church (Newton Corner, MA)
  • Let Freedom Ring Foundation/First Baptist Church (Williamsburg, VA)
  • Sacred Heart Parish (El Paso, TX)
  • St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church (Brooklyn, NY)
  • St. John’s Lafayette Square (Washington, DC)
  • Tabernacle Baptist Church (Beaufort, SC)
  • Washington National Cathedral (Washington, DC)

For more information on The National Fund for Sacred Places, visit fundforsacredplaces.org.

Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.