Cornerstone Fund Helps Break Ground on New Housing Center
Jubilee Housing and King Emmanuel Baptist Church
In March, Cornerstone Fund President and CEO Maria Coyne attended the ground-breaking of the Jubilee Housing’s King Emmanuel Baptist (KEB) Project in Washington, DC. The Cornerstone Fund is thrilled to be one of the lenders, which is a redevelopment of a historic Black church, King Emmanuel Baptist, into 18 units of housing for justice involved individuals (people returning home from incarceration).
“Taking this historic church property and transforming it into something in service to the community really brings our mission to life,” said Coyne at the event. “We are so grateful to be a part of this effort, we are excited about the impact on the community and really appreciate all the parties involved.”
Jubilee Housing leadership feels the same way about working with the Cornerstone Fund.
“From the moment we met with Cornerstone, we recognized a shared sense of mission, values, and a deep commitment to preserving community,” said Jim Knight, President and CEO of Jubilee Housing.
“We were genuinely excited to get to know them and learn more about the important work they’re doing. When one of our original lenders withdrew from the KEB project, Maria and her team stepped in without hesitation—finding a way forward and ultimately serving as the lender for both the construction and permanent phases. That’s what Cornerstone does: they help finance the development of churches, and they do it with compassion, sincerity, and reliability—which I deeply admire. I’m grateful to know Cornerstone and honored to call them a partner in bringing KEB to life.”


The KEB project is adjacent to another Jubilee Housing development, Ontario Place, that is also intended to house justice involved people as well as provide housing for residents with low incomes. Ontario Place will have solar panels and include an aquaponics farm that will produce food for residents and to sale.
According to Jubilee Housing, “Ontario Place will be DC’s first aquaponics farm tied to affordable housing and workforce development. The farm is expected to produce approximately 13,000 crops per month, with a portion of the fresh produce used in the KEB community kitchen, which will serve Jubilee residents.”
Jubilee has been working in the Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods for over 50 years, with a current portfolio comprising 13 housing projects serving 1,000 plus people. The organization is steadily growing and has several projects in stages from predevelopment to construction.


Photos and artist rendering images courtesy of Jubilee Housing.
5th Annual Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ Meeting Keynote Focused on Growing with the Help of 'God Math'
Written by Marlene Gasdia-Cochrane
Article from the news page of the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ website.
Seven years ago, eighty beachgoers spontaneously formed a human chain to save a family of nine trapped in a rip current. It took everyone working together to bring those individuals, unharmed, back on land.
That’s how the Keynote Speaker for the 5th Annual Meeting of the Southern New England Conference, the Rev. Dr. Courtney Stange-Tregear, introduced the concept of “God Math.”
“They came together and did together what not one of them, truly, could have done on their own. They saved lives, together,” she said. “There was no plan for it. They didn’t know how to do it. They hadn’t taken a course on it . They didn’t have architectural drawings and they didn’t have a savings account and they didn’t have, surely, a line item in their budgets for it. And yet still, somehow, somehow, they did. They came together and together they saved lives when not one of them working alone could have done it. That sounds to me like some God Math.”
Stange-Tregear, Chief Relationship Officer for the Cornerstone Fund, went on to talk about how the key to God Math is combining “need” and “calling.”
“On that beach, in that ocean, that family had a desperate, critical need. An important, sudden, right-now immediate need. And the people on the beach, thankfully, were uniquely positioned to meet that need. That was their calling,” she said.
She went on to point out that there are needs all around our churches and institutions, and that we are called to meet them in unique ways.
“I maybe heard about this chain story when I was having lunch away from the beach and I maybe would have wanted to be part of that chain but if I wasn’t there, that wasn’t my calling. Needs are specific. Calling is unique. And these things come together. And yet even that isn’t enough,” she said.
“Sometimes we think that we are the only ones in charge of our destiny or our fate. We think that if we work hard enough and we study hard enough and we plan enough that it’s all going to just work out and we forget to make space for God. We forget to make space for God in our story, in our calculations, and in our addition. We forget to make space for a math that we couldn’t imagine working out. We forget to make space for the story going in a different direction than we could have imagined it going,” she said.
Stange-Tregear went on to talk about how the financial ministries of the United Church of Christ are built to carry out God Math. The idea, she said, is enabling churches to take on ambitious, faith-based projects that may seem financially daunting at first glance, but become feasible when viewed through the lens of faith and community support.
Stange-Tregear said many churches have their money invested somewhere, in different institutions, but often don’t know what that money is doing, or where in particular it’s being invested. With the Cornerstone Fund, they know that their investments are working to help other churches carry out mission, while at the same time allowing them to earn a return on their investment.
She shared several examples of “God Math” in action. One such instance was a congregation that took out a $4.6 million loan to renovate an unused hall to provide housing and support services for men in need. Because the project met a clear community need, the county pays the church approximately $1 million per year, effectively covering their loan repayments and the cost of caseworkers.
Another example was a church that invested in a large solar panel installation. Despite the initial cost, the project was largely reimbursed through government incentive programs, and the savings on energy bills allowed the church to pay off their remaining loan in just two years.
During the Q&A session, Stange-Tregear addressed concerns about the risk associated with such large projects. She assured attendees that the Cornerstone Fund has a robust underwriting process in place to mitigate risk and works with congregations to develop viable and successful plans.
The address concluded with Stange-Tregear reinforcing the message that the financial ministries are there to support and guide congregations, and encouraged attendees to reach out for assistance or advice. She emphasized that her role and the role of her colleagues is to offer support and guidance to those in need, and encouraged attendees to reach out with any finance, growth, or insurance-related queries.
“When you find yourself in need or having a question or even a hope. Or a wonder of what could be has anything to do with finance or growth or insurance or struggles, know that your financial ministries are here for you,” she said.
“I don’t think God calls us only to sacrifice,” Traeger explained. “We are not called only to work harder and harder. We are called to find somebody to hold our hand. We are called to find many somebodies to hold hands and build a chain. We are called to lighten the load of one another. To work together. To do together.”
“We really can trust and believe that when we come together, we can all win. We can all benefit. We can all have a place. In God’s house and in God’s math.”
Lincoln Memorial Congregational Church Strives to Impact South L.A.
Source: Los Angeles Sentinel
Abstract: The desire to positively impact South Los Angeles inspired Pastor Wendell Miller and the members of Lincoln Memorial Congregational Church to explore avenues to make a tangible difference. The church, located at 4126 Arlington Ave., already operates several outreach ministries and even rent space to a local charter school. Yet, the parishioners wanted to do more to help their community.