WHALE, the Inter-Church Council of Greater New Bedford, and the city of New Bedford hosted two days of workshops on March 21st and March 22nd for eight congregations under the New Dollars-New Partners Program with Partners for Sacred Places. Based in Philadelphia, Partners helps congregations practice “sound stewardship” of their historic buildings through business-oriented approaches and analyzing the “halo effect” of the churches to understand the economic impact they have within their neighborhoods. The Rev. Alison Cornish, senior director of programs at Partners, lead the two days of workshops Saturday at Grace Episcopal Church on County Street, and the six New Bedford churches, Grace, First Unitarian, First Baptist, Union Baptist, Bethel AME and North Baptist, all had representatives participating.
WHALE, the City, and the Inter-Faith Council will help the churches with Sacred Spaces’ goals between now and the next workshops scheduled for September 12th and 13th.
Funding for New Dollars New Partners is being generously supported by grants to WHALE from The Island Foundation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the SE MA Community Foundation and the NB Historical Society.
