During a pilgrimage across the Diocese of Pennsylvania, Bishop Daniel G.P. Gutiérrez found that congregations needed help with their aging facilities: For some churches this meant a renovation to a room for youth; repairing an old HVAC system; improving access with handicapped ramps; repaving the parking lot; or replacing old windows with new energy-efficient ones. … [Read more...] about $1.5M in Infrastructure Grants
stewardship
Church Takes Contactless Payments
It’s a long time since the collection plate was the main source of parish income in England. The vast proportion of the £580 million the church receives each year comes in cashless forms, particularly bank standing orders. Now, after trials in 40 parishes during the summer of 2017, the Church of England is rolling out portable card readers. So far 1,600 have signed up for the … [Read more...] about Church Takes Contactless Payments
Faith, Friendship, and Better Health
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald Two years ago, Arthur Johns of Charlotte, North Carolina, was paying a heavy price for indulging in his mother-in-law’s deep-fried dinners and rich desserts. At 6-foot-2 and 476 pounds, the 51-year-old relied on blood-pressure pills and insulin shots to keep him alive. “The Dick Gregory Diet, SlimFast: everything you could think of doing, I tried … [Read more...] about Faith, Friendship, and Better Health
Anglicans Celebrate Creation
Anglicans across the world marked this year’s Season of Creation, an ecumenical focus on the environment that ran from Sept. 1 to Oct. 4. The Ecumenical Patriarch first proposed the Season of Creation Ecumenical to run from the Orthodox Church’s World Day of Prayer for Creation and ending on the Feast of St. Francis. The Anglican Consultative Council endorsed the idea when … [Read more...] about Anglicans Celebrate Creation
Sustainable Housing for the Rest of Us
Twenty Minutes with Jason Ballard By Jordan Hylden Jason Ballard is CEO and cofounder of TreeHouse, a sustainable home improvement retailer and home solutions provider based in Austin that aims to do for our homes what Tesla did for cars and Whole Foods did for groceries. It has two new stores opening this summer and plans a nationwide expansion. Ballard calls his company … [Read more...] about Sustainable Housing for the Rest of Us
Giving for the Long Term
When Patrick Calhoun and his wife, Julie, were making estate plans two years ago, they had not thought of leaving assets to their church, Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock. Establishing a trust for their children and grandchildren was their primary focus. But now Trinity is in line to receive as much as 25 percent of the portion donated outside the Calhoun family. One factor … [Read more...] about Giving for the Long Term
Cultivating Gratitude
Eddi van W./Flickr By Sue Careless Weather in November can be bleak in the Northern Hemisphere, but this is the month in which Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving six weeks earlier in the warm, golden glow of early October. As Christians we know we need always to give thanks, but it can be hard when one considers current levels of … [Read more...] about Cultivating Gratitude
Rochester Faces Crisis
By John Martin Downton Abbey held up a mirror to contrasting attitudes to shrinking finances. While some of their peers lived in denial and eventually had to give up their estates, the Crawleys stayed alert to financial realities and retained their historic home. Three years ago, three dioceses in the north of England (Bradford, Ripon, and Wakefield) faced acute financial … [Read more...] about Rochester Faces Crisis