Posted on May 28, 2003 | by Staff

WASHINGTON (BP)--The Bush administration has announced the reversal of a policy that has prevented historic buildings still used as places of worship from receiving federal preservation funds.

Gale Norton, secretary of the Department of the Interior, disclosed the policy shift May 27 in announcing a $317,000 grant to help preserve Old North Church in Boston. The 280-year-old Episcopal church is known primarily in American history for its part in the start of the Revolutionary War. Two lanterns were hung from the church's steeple on an April night in 1775, signaling to Paul Revere the advance of British troops upon Lexington and initiating his horseback ride to warn the colonial forces.

The grant will help repair and restore Old North's windows and make the building more accessible to the public.

The grant reverses a policy formalized in 1995 by the Department of Justice that barred preservation funds for buildings still used for religious purposes.

"This new policy will bring balance to our historic preservation program and end a discriminatory double standard that has been applied against religious properties," Norton said.

At least one organization that advocates a strict separation between the church and the government criticized the decision.

"Church congregations ought to pay for the maintenance and repair of churches, historic or otherwise," said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Old North Church's "repair and upkeep ought to be paid for by the people who worship there. Those congregants have no right to pass the collection plate to the taxpayer," he said.

Federal funds have been used to restore some houses of worship, such as Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church, after their congregations moved to other sites, The Washington Post reported. David Barna, a spokesman for the National Park Service, said federal money is used to maintain the buildings of 24 churches on park properties in the country, according to The Post.

Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, applauded the Interior decision.

"Historic religious properties not only serve as spiritual anchors in our communities and neighborhoods but also contribute to the sense of place and the understanding of history that defines our identity as a nation," Moe said. "Yet regardless of their historical significance to the nation, these structures have until today been ineligible for federal preservation assistance. The change in policy announced by the White House will ensure that these sites -- and many more of America's historic and architectural treasures -- are eligible for much-needed support."

Moe cited Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., where a 1963 bombing killed four young girls and further motivated the civil rights movement, as another active church with a structure "falling prey to the ravages of time and inadequate funding."

The grant to Old North Church was made under the Save America's Treasures Historic Preservation Fund, which was established in 1998 as a partnership between the Department of Interior's National Park Service and the nonprofit National Trust of Historic Preservation.
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