Bought With Relief Money Meant for a Barn: A Controversial Anchorage Church Building Is Sold to Adventists

• Revive Alaska Community Services bought a Midtown Anchorage church building in June 2022 for $1.85 million.
• The group had received a $750,000 federal ARPA grant from the Municipality of Anchorage to repair a barn used as a food pantry.
• Instead it tore the barn down and used the grant money towards the church purchase.
• It sold the church on May 3, 2023 for $1.96 million to the Alaska Corporation of Seventh-day Adventists.

A church building in Anchorage that became the centre of a row over federal pandemic relief money has changed hands. Alaska’s News Source reported that Revive Alaska Community Services (RACS) sold the Midtown church to the Alaska Corporation of Seventh-day Adventists.

In December 2021 the Municipality of Anchorage awarded RACS a $750,000 grant from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the federal COVID-19 relief programme. RACS president Prince Nwankudu had told Assembly members that the grant would go towards repairing a barn in South Anchorage that was used as a food pantry.

Instead, RACS tore the barn down, saying it was beyond repair, and used the grant money towards buying a Midtown church building, which it purchased in June 2022 for $1.85 million. The building was later listed for sale at $2.2 million and sold on May 3, 2023 for $1.96 million to the Seventh-day Adventists, a South Anchorage-based church body.

Alaska’s News Source said its efforts to get recent comment from RACS were unsuccessful, and it was not known whether the food pantry would reopen elsewhere.

The episode raises questions that apply wherever public or donor money meets church property. A grant given for one purpose was used to buy a building, and the building was then sold on. When grants or donations are used for property, the agreement should say what the money can buy, who will own the asset and what happens if it is sold. Jamaican churches and faith charities receiving public funds or diaspora donations for building work should keep clear records and stick to the stated purpose. Buyers of church buildings, for their part, should check whether any grant conditions or claims are attached to the property.

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