A | CHESTER, Pa. -- The Eagles and the NFL might still be the sports favorites at Calvary Baptist Church, just outside Philadelphia. But many here are also rooting for a neighboring team which last year reached the championship game of Major League Soccer.Their new-found fandom is all about location — and revenue from parking. The Philadelphia Union plays at Subaru Park, a stadium beside the Delaware River just a few blocks from Calvary in the economically challenged city of Chester. Its poverty rate is among the highest in the metro area.As the Union continues to attract loyal fans and reach new heights, so have the blessings bestowed on this historic church where Martin Luther King Jr. attended as a seminarian.It has been crucial. Like many other Black Protestant churches, Calvary Baptist struggled financially during the coronavirus pandemic. Attendance fell, and along with it, funding. But the church has transformed its parking lot to accommodate game-day fundraisers, with volunteers from the congregation staffing the lots and selling spaces for $15 per vehicle.These days, the church raises up to $3,000 per game — about half of what goes into the collection plate on Sundays, said its pastor, Keith Dickens. The welcome influx of extra money is being used to pay for utilities, ministries and a new speaker system that will allow Calvary to reach a broader audience by broadcasting its services online.“It’s been a blessing,” said Dickens, who on a recent game day proudly sported a Philadelphia Union hat. "Not only just to generate funding, but also to meet and minister to new people.”Across the nation, houses of worship located near stadiums — from Boston’s Fenway Park to the Green Bay Packers’ Lambeau Field — have opened their parking lots to legions of fans.For churches offering parking near pro-soccer stadiums, their coffers recently received an assist from the world’s best active player, Lionel Messi who joined an MLS roster this year. All 250 parking spaces at the Calvary lot were full when Messi’s Inter Miami played the Union.Jeffrey Scholes, co-author of “Religion and Sports in American Culture,” said churches like Calvary show a growing willingness to use “secular entities like sport for religious purposes” including, “continuing a ministry, feeding the poor, keeping the lights on, things that ideally churches do."In the past, Scholes said clergy might have preferred the “old-fashioned way” of getting churchgoers to donate while shunning the sports-fan parking business as too “worldly."“There’s just much more openness to different kinds of nonreligious tactics to perform the necessary functions of a church or synagogue or mosque,” Scholes said. It also offers an opportunity to share with fans the history of congregations like Calvary, which was founded in 1879 by a group of formerly enslaved Africans seeking freedom to worship.On a recent game day, fans decked in the Union's navy, signal blue and gold colors pulled into parking spots in front of Calvary's colorful mural that pays homage to King. The civil rights leader worshipped at the church from 1948-1951, when he attended Chester’s Crozer Theological Seminary. Chester has a notable cultural and industrial history, but now has economic difficulties that make Calvary's new parking revenue all the more appreciated.“For us, if it gives back to a cause, it makes it all the better,” Abe Gitterman, age 37 and Jewish, said before he paid the parking fee. Next to him, his 6-and 7-year-old sons pointed to the mural and asked parking attendant and church member Lisa Lewis if this was the same man they had learned about in school. “Yes,” she replied, smiling. “It feels good,” she later said, “to tell them the history about the church.”It can also be fun. In Lubbock, Texas, Leslie Cranford, a parishioner at St. John’s United Methodist Church, said Texas Tech football fans have tailgated with RVs — taking up to four spots ($10 each) — in the church parking lot, near the Red Raiders' Jones AT&T Stadium. Sometimes, rival fans park at the church. “We tell them: we got to charge you extra!” Cranford said, laughing. She introduced the parking program at her congregation two decades ago. On a good season, they make up to $2,000 per game. “Dwindling attendance is a problem," Cranford said. "So, this helps us maintain our ministries.” In Boston, the Christian Science Church opened its parking garage to the public in 2014. That includes Red Sox fans who can park for $30 — a lower rate than closer to Fenway Park. Kevin Ness, manager of the Christian Science Committees on Publication, said the revenue helps cover the operating expenses of Christian Science Plaza, a popular tourist attraction which sits on top of the garage in the Fenway neighborhood. “This in turn allows the contributions from members to directly support the worldwide healing mission of the church,” he said. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, Bethany Church began its Packers parking program in 2010.“We thought it would be a great avenue for outreach, and a way to get funds to help support the growing ministries,” Bethany’s administrative assistant, Jill Connerym said via email. The church doesn’t have a set charge, and instead asks for donation, Connery said, adding that “many people are very generous.”Packers parking helps fund programs, including youth ministries, small group learning and building facility upgrades, Connery said. The church parking lot is often full on game days.“We are known for our hospitality,” she said. “We had a volunteer who began giving rides to Lambeau from our parking lot, free of charge to whoever didn’t want to walk the .5 miles to the stadium. So, now we are known for our shuttle service, and friendly volunteers.”Churches also have embraced other fans. Nashville First Church of the Nazarene offered their parking lots for three shows attended by thousands at nearby Nissan Stadium during the Nashville leg of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The parking program ($30 a spot) also is popular during Tennessee Titans games and has helped fund ministries in Nashville and missions in Haiti and Kenya.“Every one of these dollars comes right back in to help people,” said its senior pastor, Kevin Ulmet. “When people hear that, they love that, they say ‘we want to be a part of that.’ And that, to me, is the classic definition of win-win.”__Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.。 讯 8月21日，国务院新闻办公室举行“开局起步‘十五五’”系列主题新闻发布会，介绍发挥积极财政政策作用，推动经济社会高质量发展有关情况。 财政部预算司司长王新祥在会上介绍，随着中国式现代化建设的深入推进，人民群众对上学、看病、住房等民生保障有着更高期盼，在养老服务、育幼、出行等身边事上有着更多需求。
B | 柴米油盐里藏着民心，衣食住行中连着大局。财政部门牢记人民至上，坚持尽力而为、量力而行，紧盯人民群众的急难愁盼，不断加大保障和改善民生的力度，持续增进民生福祉。概括起来主要体现在以下两个方面： 一方面，真金白银投得更“实”。今年，全国一般公共预算安排教育、社保、卫生、住房等方面的资金达到了12.4万亿元，比上年增长5.4%，高于全国一般公共预算支出增幅1个百分点。 社会保障网越织越密。基本生活救助、专项社会救助、急难社会救助等各项制度不断健全。
C | 预计今年全年超过4400万人领取低保、特困人员供养等基本生活救助。 “一老一小”服务保障更加有力。今年专门安排资金，支持农村地区65岁及以上老年人等群体免费接种流感疫苗。超过2500万名婴幼儿及其家庭领到了2026年度育儿补贴，约2400万人次在园儿童享受到学前一年免保育教育费政策。 基本医疗卫生服务提质增效。居民医保财政补助标准进一步提高，减轻人民群众就医负担。支持落实将双价HPV疫苗纳入国家免疫规划，推动为年满13周岁的女童做好接种服务。 教育公平稳步提升。
D | 下达学生资助资金超过1600亿元，预计全年将有1.5亿人次受益。 另一方面，政策举措落得更“准”。
E | 坚持问需于民，找准投资于人的切入点，靶向发力。比如，针对“一人失能、全家失衡”的长期护理难题，中央财政推动加快建立长期护理保险制度。同时，安排资金超过120亿元，在全国范围内实施向中度以上失能老年人发放养老服务消费补贴项目，惠及近200万失能老年人。再比如，为适应学龄人口变化，调整教育转移支付资金结构，推动教育资源优化配置。 王新祥表示，“十五五”规划《纲要》专门用一个篇章对保障和改善民生作出部署，要求推动灵活就业人员等群体参加相关职工保险，健全社会救助体系，优化基本养老服务供给，推动基础教育扩优提质等，这些都是带着温度的任务清单。财政部门正在逐项逐条对照，研究贯彻落实举措，努力让每一项政策都能落地见效，每一笔经费都能用到实处，推动任务清单转化为人民群众看得见、摸得着的幸福实景。版权申明：凡注有“”或电头为“”的稿件，均为独家版权所有，未经许可不得转载或镜像；授权转载必须注明来源为“”，并保留“”的电头。
F | 。
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