Top 5 Alban resources of 2021

Happy New Year! We begin a fresh year of the Alban Weekly with a look back at the resources that resonated most with Weekly readers. If you feel like you have spent this year continually determining – and determining again…

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Buildings — assets or albatrosses?

One of the trends in congregational life we have been following for a while is how communities of faith relate to buildings. We’ve watched as some congregations deal with the issues that come with aging structures and deferred maintenance. Other…

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Serving the homeless & housing insecure

No doubt you’ve seen the statistics. The U.S. Census Bureau reported in December 2020 that an estimated 14 million adults living in rental housing were behind on their rent. An additional 11.8 million adults lived in households that could not keep up…

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Creative community-based ministries

Happy Tuesday – and welcome to a new design for the Alban Weekly! In this week’s edition, we’ll find inspiration in the stories of three congregations that have developed enterprising ministries to meet the evolving needs of their communities. We’ll…

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CENTERview: Ten Things You Need to Know about Sacred Space Projects

Buildings communicate. Stained-glass windows, high altars, multipurpose worship-gymnasium spaces, Plexiglas pulpits, padded pews—all these and other architectural elements say something about a congregation’s theology and mission. They point to a faith community’s beliefs about worship, identity, purpose, and more. Sacred…

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The Leading Edge: Space Matters

A recent visit to Independence Hall in Philadelphia reminded me of how much space matters. Standing in the room where our nation was invented, where the Declaration of Independence was debated and signed, and where the Constitution was hammered out,…

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