From this morning's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette-
At a meeting last week of the Urban Church Network, leaders of 80 predominantly black churches in Allegheny County discussed how to stem a financial crisis that has forced some pastors to take a second full-time job and a few churches to close.
Their first concern was how to help neighborhoods through times so hard that robbery and high blood pressure have soared, said the Rev. Jermaine McKinley, assistant director of the Metro-Urban Institute at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. With little of their own to give, they want to teach others how to tap into the government stimulus package to improve their communities.
"Most churches are not in the business of building houses. We don't build roads. But what we can do is help the community to address the issue," she said.
That is one of many responses congregations have made to the economic crisis. There are no major studies, though anecdotes say income went down while neighborhood needs and utilities shot up. Some wealthy congregations may hurt worse than those accustomed to scraping by.
Bishop Kurt Kusserow, who oversees 201 parishes in the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, tracks the impact through donations to missions. Some parishes cut their gifts; others increased theirs. The difference isn't related to size, he said.
More here-
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09088/959157-85.stm
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