wfn.org | UMNS# 05190-Churches sell steeple space as hiding spots for

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Churches sell steeple space as hiding spots for cellular antennas

Apr. 1, 2005	 News media contact:   Matt  Carlisle * (615) 742-5470*
Nashville {05190}

NOTE: Photographs are available at www.umc.org.

A UMC.org Feature
By Neill Caldwell*

For generations, church steeples have served as conduits to God,
symbolically reaching heavenward, providing a visual reminder of the
size and power of the church, and calling congregations to worship with
the sound of bells.

These days, the steeple may also include an antenna to relay cell phone
calls.

Churches, from the National Cathedral in Washington to the most rural
parishes in the U.S. Midwest, are taking advantage of the
telecommunications industry's need for a system of wireless antennas.
Churches allowing such antenna in their steeples have discovered a new
source of income that often runs into tens of thousands of dollars
annually.

This proliferation of antennas is a result of the Telecommunications Act
of 1996, which prevented local jurisdictions from shutting out wireless
carriers altogether. The United States has an estimated 125,000 cellular
transmitters, and that number is expected to triple by the end of this
decade to satisfy the exploding demand for cellular service and the
arrival of advanced wireless technology. And as transmission equipment
becomes smaller, placing it inside church steeples may become more
common.

The United Methodist Church's New England Annual (regional) Conference
has taken the lead in responding to this need. The conference
established a formal relationship with SteepleCom, a company that brings
churches and telecommunications companies together in leasing
agreements. So far, the company has a client list of 800 churches.

"We see this as a benign way for many of our churches to enhance their
revenue," said Mike Hickcox, director of communications for the New
England Annual Conference. "It is simply riding the wave of technology
in which our churches happen to have great location, height and a way to
maintain the aesthetics of the area."

The Rev. Stephen Sebastian, an ordained congregational pastor who now
works fulltime for SteepleCom, said church members always worry about
where the money will come from for various ministries.

"This is such an opportunity," he said. "The church steeple is a
valuable asset in today's wireless age. As the wireless companies expand
their infrastructure, we're likely to see that money funneled into our
churches rather than the private sector because we know the churches
will do good things with that money."

The contracts for the churches in the New England Conference have varied
from $500 to $4,000 a month, depending on where the church is located,
according to Sebastian.

Churches in the conference can use SteepleCom or negotiate their own
deals. But officials at SteepleCom see power in numbers.

"Our company is a facilitator set up to deal with regional and national
groups of churches," said SteepleCom's founder, Tom Moylan, a United
Methodist in the New England Conference. "So many individual churches
have been taken advantage of. They didn't know their own market value.
And one church has no presence in the marketplace. When you have a group
of 550 churches, they have a presence, and the carriers will take
notice."

Hickcox said SteepleCom has a list of the locations of all churches
within the conference, and it shares those coordinates with Verizon,
Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile and other companies as possible antenna
sites.

Advocates see the placement of antennas in steeples as positive for all
involved. A contract provides a church with income for renting out what
is essentially an unused part of the building. The community gets better
wireless service. And in some cases, the phone companies perform needed
repairs to old steeples as part of the contract.

In Ipswich, Mass., lightning destroyed First United Methodist Church's
steeple about 15 years ago, and the church lacked the $100,000 needed to
build a new one. When the town of Ipswich rejected a proposal for a tall
antenna tower for Bell Atlantic (now part of Verizon), the company
turned to the church and offered to build a steeple in exchange for the
right to hide a transmitter inside.

The congregation rejoiced. In addition to not having to pay for a new
steeple, First Church receives a monthly fee from the telecommunications
companies that use it.

There's a flip side. At Temple United Methodist Church in San Francisco,
the church found itself having to spend thousands of dollars to repair
its steeple so that it could remain a location of antennas for Sprint
and AT&T.

And safety can be an issue. At First United Methodist Church in
Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., families living around the church opposed plans
to locate a wireless relay antenna in the steeple. The pastor, the Rev.
Karyn Wiseman, said opposition was mainly due to people not
understanding what the equipment was all about, and the fear that it was
somehow dangerous.

"It's not a huge cell tower," Wiseman said. "It's a 25-foot pole with a
booster antenna attached. There are dead spots in between the cell
towers, and these antennas boost the signal from one to another.

"There is a lot of misinformation that has gone out, but studies done
say there is no discernable danger," she said. "If we'd found a single
study that said these relay stations cause cancer, we'd have said no.
But we found just the opposite. We did all the research we could
possibly do."

As the highest point in town, the church seemed a natural location for
AT&T's antenna. The plan was approved by the city's planning board, then
overturned on a technicality, and was headed back to the board for
further action.

In the meantime, the church has endured a flood of negative letters to
the editor in the local newspaper.

"We've been called Nazis and Satanic," Wiseman said. "Someone said we
should put a sign out front that says, 'Show me the money.' It's gotten
pretty personal. But the church has gotten stronger. Attendance and
giving are up."

Local churches interested in more information on hosting a wireless
communications site can contact United Methodist Communications at (888)
346-3862 or umc@umcom.org.

# # #

*Caldwell is a freelance writer based in High Point, NC.

News media contact: Matt Carlisle, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5153 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org