Foundation Directors Vote Loans to Dioceses
Diocesan Press Service. February 13, 1975 [75061]
NEW YORK, N. Y. -- At its winter meeting the Board of Directors of The Episcopal Church Foundation approved loans to two dioceses for parish building programs. The interest-free loans will be made from the Foundation's Revolving Loan Fund and are repayable in ten annual, equal installments, with a small administrative charge on the unpaid balance.
The Diocese of Missouri will receive $9,500 for the use of Trinity Parish, in St. Louis, in renovating its sanctuary and remodeling its kitchen. The parish is located in the city's central west end and draws its growing congregation from the neighborhood's rich and poor, old and young, black and white. One-third of the parish budget and more than one-half of the time of its paid staff and volunteers are devoted to neighborhood programs that operate seven days a week. The parish is linked with the Second Presbyterian Church and the First Unitarian Church in a Joint Community Board that coordinates the local outreach efforts of all three. One of Trinity's exciting innovations is the "Team Ministry," under which the Vestry has assumed direct management of the parish and three part-time clergymen carry out parish activities with teams of lay people under the Vestry's supervision.
A $30,000 loan to the Diocese of Central New York will enable Zion Episcopal Church in Rome to replace its 80-year-old pipe organ with a new instrument in time to celebrate the parish's 150th anniversary later this year. The loan will also help to install new lighting in the nave and to introduce new first and theft alarm systems.
The Revolving Loan Fund of The Episcopal Church Foundation was established in 1952 to make loans for parish and mission construction or renovation projects to accommodate recent shifts in population. The Fund's capital of $1,183,555 is in constant, productive motion as the repayments of old loans are put to work in the form of new loans to other dioceses. To date 229 parishes and mission, located in 74 dioceses, have benefitted from this program.