Dover Friends Meeting Wins Grant From National Fund For Sacred Places

Press release from Dover Friends Meeting (Quakers):

Dover Friends Meeting (Quakers) is delighted to announce that the National Fund for Sacred Places has awarded their Meeting a $50,000 matching grant to support their Sanctuary ministry for immigrants at risk of deportation. This generous grant will help Friends make necessary renovations to their 1768 meetinghouse in order to meet building codes and continue offering mercy, refuge, and welcome in their meetinghouse. Dover Friends Meeting is one of 16 congregations chosen nationally from an initial field of 325 applications from houses of worship for this prestigious award.

Beth Collea of Dover Friends Meeting explained the importance of this ministry to the congregation: “At the heart of the Christmas Story is the search for refuge and a safe place. It begins with ‘no room at the Inn’ and ends with a hasty escape by the Holy Family into Egypt running from Herod’s wrath. The need for sanctuary has been with us for thousands of years. Dover Friends Meeting’s Sanctuary Ministry provides a contemporary, actionable response to the challenges Mary and Joseph faced in the timeless Christmas Story. This Quaker congregation hopes to be able to say, ‘Welcome! Yes, we have room for you!’ to asylum seekers and other immigrants.”

Dover Friends’ Sanctuary Ministry began in 2017. Their meetinghouse, near the center of Dover, has a floor plan ideally suited to create a separate apartment on the lower level. They first offered Sanctuary to a local family of asylum seekers who needed a place to live, safe from the threat of deportation, while they organized their legal case for asylum.

This is a regional ministry with national connections. Six miles from Dover Friends Meeting is the Strafford County House of Corrections which holds a contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to house immigrants in removal proceedings, including those who were detained in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, as well as other areas. Dover Friends are not alone in this vital work. The Seacoast Interfaith Sanctuary Coalition (SISC) brings nine area congregations together to shoulder the work. Pooling their collective skills and resources, SISC members heighten the capacity for people of faith to answer the call to welcome the stranger.

“The City of Dover, NH has demonstrated support for welcoming immigrants and asylum seekers. But city officials require Friends to make significant fire safety upgrades in order to comply with building codes,” explained Jeremiah Dickinson, another member of the project leadership team. The renovations will cost about $250,000 and include: a sprinkler system, fire retardant wrapping for structural supports, and a new exit door and ramp from their worship space. “That’s a daunting sum for a small congregation and yet the call is clear,” he said.

At the heart of the work of the National Fund for Sacred Places, a program of Partners for Sacred Places in collaboration with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is the conviction that houses of worship are a significant asset for a whole community and fundraising should look beyond their own circle of members. In addition to significant financial support, the National Fund staff offers mentorships and technical assistance to undertake the capital campaign.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dover Friends Meeting into the National Fund cohort,” said Bob Jaeger, president of Partners for Sacred Places. “This is the first year the Fund has supported a Quaker meeting, and we were compelled by the importance of their hospitality mission to their community and the inherent beauty and historic importance of their building. Sanctuary indeed!”

If you would like to join Dover Friends and SISC in this contemporary response of refuge and mercy, checks, made out to Dover Friends Meeting with “Sanctuary” on the memo line, may be sent to: Dover Friends Meeting, P.O. Box 98, Dover, NH 03821-0098

This press release was produced by Dover Friends Meeting (Quakers). The views expressed here are the author's own.