St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in New Hope
Two non-profit houses of worship in New Hope have received grants from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD)’s Non-Profit Security Grant Fund.
Kehilat Hanahar (The Little Shul by the River) was awarded $24,760, and St. Philip’s Episcopal Church received $18,000.
Other area recipients include Congregation Kol Emet in Yardley, and River of Life Church of the Assemblies of God and Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, both in Doylestown.
Kehilat Hanahar in New Hope
The Non-Profit Security Grant Fund was established last year and administers grant funding to non-profit organizations who “principally serve individuals, groups, or institutions that are included within a bias motivation category for single bias hate crime incidents as identified by the FBI’s 2017 Hate Crime Statistics publication.”
Funding from the grants goes towards security projects or improvements to protect the organization’s facilities and its individual members. Over 800 applications were received from across the Commonwealth, requesting more than $27 million for security projects.
“A house of worship should be a sanctuary, never a place of fear,” said State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10). “I’m grateful that these organizations in the district will be receiving funding for their security enhancement projects. I will continue to advocate on behalf of all residents and the safety of our community, and fight for increased funding for these important programs in the future.”
I don’t agree having the State of Pennsylvania give grants to churches to provide security money for there property. What happened to the separation of church and state? Was this the people of Pennsylvania’s choice I don’t recall seeing this at the last election. I would not have voted for it why should the taxpayers pay for security for a select few churches. Will these churches have to document on where the money is spent on ? That should be a public record to us tax payers on how this money is spent. And how were these select few picked to receive this huge sum what was the criteria, I wonder.
The grant process has got to be inefficient and somewhat unfair. The benefits only come to an organization who 1) is in the “know” 2) has the resources/volunteer to apply and then it’s absurd! I love these local churches, but $18k for St. Philips? It’s a very small building… seems excessive.
Both of these locations have been victims of hate crimes and the money is for security, and it required bids and proposals before being awarded. As you can see in the article, there were over 800 applications, and these were just the institutions chosen in Santarsiero’s district, so no, it’s not exclusive or inefficient; you just don’t know how to read.