ALBUQUERQUE: FINANCIAL TROUBLES AT ST. JOHN’S CATHEDRAL SIGN OF BROADER COLLAPSE

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue

The Episcopal Church, facing its worst spiritual crisis in living memory, is also coming apart at the financial seams. Around the country many downtown cathedrals face massive financial shortfalls coupled with dwindling congregations.

One cathedral, St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral, in the Diocese of the Rio Grande (New Mexico and Texas), announced on its website last week that it faces a $145,000 shortfall in its one million dollar 2004 budget. The dollar dry-up is another sign of the continued decline in parish giving to both the local diocese and national church.

The cathedral is expected to roll out an interim pledge drive to try to raise much-needed money. In the meantime the vestry has again chosen to tap the cathedral endowment for five percent of its value, or $140,000. If the vestry had not done so, this year’s shortfall would have been $285,000 — a whopping 28 percent of the 2004 budget. The vestry has been tapping the value of the endowment for several years.

The cathedral hired a new dean, Alan Dennis, before the 2003 General Convention in the hope he could boost membership and revenues. Those goals have been derailed by the votes of last year’s General Convention to broker in same-sex rites and Robinson’s election to the episcopacy.

According to Dr. Steve Bush, senior warden, the cathedral’s expenses went up nearly $50,000, but pledges plummeted by $95,000 — 12 percent less than in 2003. The 2004 pledge drive began after the Episcopal Church’s 2003 General Convention which rejected the church’s historic Thirty-nine Articles of faith, and voted positively on the sexual issues.

Dr. Bush wrote that unless more money is contributed, the cathedral will not be able to hire a third priest, and persons hired to fill the vacant positions of music and education directors will not be paid at the levels of their predecessors.

The biblically orthodox Diocese of the Rio Grande is in the midst of turmoil and strife, with the local chapter of Via Media attempting to subvert the process to elect a new bishop coadjutor to replace the orthodox Bishop Terence Kelshaw, who plans to retire in 2005.

Via Media poses as a non-biased group seeking reconciliation within the church, but it has found sanctuary only in dioceses where bishops voted against Robinson’s consecration. Bishop Kelshaw voted against Robinson, same-sex blessings and in favor of keeping the Thirty-Nine Articles.

The list of Via Media’s complaints is stunning… In truth, Via Media bares its hypocritical soul by loudly proclaiming what it wants for itself and what it silently denies others in revisionist dioceses like Pennsylvania.

One of Via Media’s leaders is the full-time priest at St. John’s Cathedral, Rev. Gary Meade, who is listed on the Via Media website.

St. John’s Cathedral, founded more than 120 years ago, has almost 1,500 members on its rolls, but weekly attendance is far less. It is made up largely of older parishioners.

The decades-old erosion of the once mighty proud Episcopal Church continues, but now a new torrent of rain floods the pews. This time, members of Albuquerque’s St. John’s are voting on the ECUSA crisis by withholding their dollars, while costs to maintain their church continue to rise. To survive, they must reach into their endowments — dead men’s money — to stay alive.

Robbing Peter to pay for Gene cannot continue indefinitely. The price tag is too high as many are discovering. One day even the endowments will run out.