wfn.org | Episcopalians: Executive Council affirms Church Center move

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October 14, 2002

2002-235

Episcopalians: Executive Council affirms Church Center move

by Jan Nunley

(ENS) After what one participant described as "a bruising two 
days" of discussion and debate, the Executive Council, meeting 
in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, voted on Monday to continue pursuing a 
joint project which would move the Episcopal Church Center to 
the campus of the General Theological Seminary (GTS) in New 
York. The vote came despite a strong recommendation from the 
Standing Committee on Administration and Finance (A&F) and the 
management team of the Church Center that the project be 
scuttled because of differences with the GTS team and the 
uncertain economy.

The resolution, which passed 27-6, authorizes up to $1 
million from unrestricted net assets and the hiring of a project 
architect, project manager, public relations support and others 
necessary to begin Phase II of the project, once Phase I is 
brought to a satisfactory conclusion.

In committee hearings and plenary sessions on Saturday and 
Sunday, council members heard concerns that the Domestic and 
Foreign Missionary Society (DFMS), the corporate name under 
which the Church Center operates, would be "taking on a 
disproportionate amount of the risk" of the project compared to 
that of the seminary. According to treasurer Ralph O'Hara, the 
uncertainties of the American economy, the trauma of last year's 
terrorist attacks and the threat of further wars, and the crisis 
in financial and other institutions have eroded confidence to 
the point where "we're in a very different risk climate" from 
the period when the project first surfaced for consideration. 
According to O'Hara, the project would show no favorable cash 
flow for DFMS until 2016.

Chief operating officer Pat Mordecai told the council that a 
series of "difficult conversations" with GTS had not resulted in 
a better balance between debt and risk for the DFMS side of the 
equation, and an outside analysis showed that GTS would need to 
make substantial budget cuts in order to preserve its endowment 
income. 

Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, who promised to support 
whatever decision the council made on the project, raised the 
question of "what national church headquarters are going to look 
like in the future," and whether a thirty-year commitment to 
"bricks and mortar" would leave the church flexible enough to 
respond to changing management styles.

Called to the podium, GTS dean Ward Ewing called it "an 
unfortunate process" and told the council he had a "dramatically 
different understanding" of the conversations with the 
management team. "This has been a bruising two days," Ewing 
said, pointing out that he had been given no prior notice of the 
management team's recommendation.

"We're forgetting that we are a church of enormous 
abundance," remarked Judge Jim Bradberry of Southern Virginia. 
"We can't afford to stop acting like Christians just because the 
market takes a dive and there are threats of war. Where's our 
courage?" Bishop Robert Johnson of Western North Carolina 
pointed out that the project represents "sweating bullets" in 
the short term but a good investment over the long term--"and we 
are called to sweat bullets for Jesus sometimes."

Others were concerned, however, that there had been a 
breakdown of the relationship between the DFMS and GTS teams 
which needed repair. That prompted the council to go into a 
closed session which lasted more than an hour on Sunday evening, 
and to agree to return for a vote the following morning. In a 
move unusual for the council, the vote was taken by written 
secret ballot.

Following the vote, Ewing thanked the council and expressed 
"a strong conviction that this project was being guided by the 
Holy Spirit, however it turned out." Later, he told reporters 
that while "too many folks have been chewed up" for him to be 
exhilarated about the affirming vote, he was "excited" that the 
project would go forward in a "new beginning, with the Presiding 
Bishop and myself working more closely together."

Meanwhile, Mordecai requested that the council be more 
specific about what they were directing the management team to 
do in their initial resolution, and they will vote later Monday 
on further resolutions clarifying several details of the next 
steps of the project.

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--The Rev. Jan Nunley is deputy director of Episcopal News 
Service.