Church building fund responds to new challenges
The Episcopal Church Building Fund endeavors to respond to growing challenges of churches being strapped financially due to the expense of maintaining aging buildings.
Episcopal Church Building Fund offers new terms, new ideas
From Episcopal Life Online
Saying that much of the financial strain facing struggling Episcopal Church congregations in United States can be directly attributed to their buildings, the Episcopal Church Building Fund recently announced what it called "strategic and focused changes to its offerings to benefit strapped congregations and prevent closures."To make loans more feasible for small congregations, the building fund said in a press release, it has increased loan amounts to $500,000, and the term may now be extended up to 15 years.
"We know that smaller parishes struggle to pay off building loans over 10 years," building fund President Julia Groom-Thompson said in the release. "The added term is designed to make payments less financially stressful."
"We realize today that building fund loans may serve as piece of the total funding for a project, they are used as leverage to secure other types of financing," she added. "Today, congregations often need more financial leverage than we had previously been able to provide. We hope that increasing our limit to half a million dollars will bring building projects, and additional financing, within reach."
