Renewal through Repurposing

Name: Renewal through Repurposing
Start: 2025-08-19T18:15:00-04:00
Location: First Congregational Church of Willimantic, UCC

Schedule

Tue, 19 Aug, 2025 at 06:15 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

First Congregational Church of Willimantic, UCC | Willimantic, CT

All Windham and Tolland Association churches are invited. The program is open to all clergy and congregants – social activists and stewards, mission supporters and trustees – as you consider the needs of your community, the resources you have, and potential partners.
Register at: tinyurl.com/Aug19MOLO

About the presentation:
The documentary, It Takes a Village, is “an alternative to the more popular narrative of church doom, gloom, and decline,” states Rev. Patrick Duggan, Executive Director of the UCC’s Church Building & Loan Fund. Duggan tells the story of St. Peter’s UCC and MOLO Village in Louisville’s Russell community to illustrate “repurposing and redeveloping church properties to more effectively advance the mission of the church.”
The thirty-minute, award winning film celebrates the partnership of the UCC Church Building & Loan Fund (CB&LF), St. Peter’s UCC, and others in the Louisville’s Russell community that created the MOLO Village. The 30,000-square-foot, $7 million project was the first investment in decades in the long-neglected Russell neighborhood on the city’s West End. Built on a former church parking lot, it houses social services, businesses, a bank branch, a restaurant and more. With the support and strategic expertise of CB&LF, St. Peter’s UCC was able to repurpose and redevelop its resources – facilities, land, heritage, faith, social capital, leadership, and people – to transform their community.
Rev. Duggan will be present to speak about their experience with MOLO Village and invite those present to imagine ways to respond to God’s call in their community, to transform lives, and build community.