LIKE DRUNKEN EPISCOPAL SAILORS
Feckless Trinity-Wall Street rector Jim Cooper? Benny Hinn called me just now and he is absolutely appalled, man:
During a Sunday morning service at Trinity Church last summer, a longtime parishioner looked around during the reading of the Gospel and counted the worshippers.
By her tally, there were 49 people in the pews of the historic lower Manhattan church — a meager turnout for the storied, 314-year-old parish.
She was puzzled, then, when the next week’s church bulletin reported attendance at 113.
Trinity’s rector, the Rev. James Cooper, had decided that tourists who wander in and out of the chapel should be counted as well, she was told.
“That’s just a little snapshot into the way he presents everything,” said the parishioner, who was also a member of the governing board until she resigned in protest. “Everything has a little bit of truth to it but a lot of deception around it.”
Playing fast and loose with the numbers, and official church records, is one of the many complaints that dog the man who heads the richest parish in the Anglican world, a church with at least $1 billion in Manhattan real estate.
Paula White thinks you need to get your priorities straight.
Cooper was supposed to be the guardian angel of Trinity. Instead, former board members say his dictatorial style of leadership and grandiose ambitions have fomented insurrection in the staid Episcopal community. They accuse him of undermining Trinity’s mission of good works since taking over as rector in 2004.
Instead of helping the poor, Cooper’s helped himself — with demands for a $5.5 million SoHo townhouse, an allowance for his Florida condo, trips around the world including an African safari and a fat salary.
Rather than building an endowment, he is accused of wasting more than $1 million on development plans for a luxury condo tower that has been likened to a pipe dream and burning another $5 million on a publicity campaign.
Because nobody knows about a church that’s been around over 200 years and is the most historic Anglican church in the United States. This story was the first time that I’d ever heard of the place, except for all those other times. But who needs feck anyway? Jim Bakker can’t believe how much jack my man is pulling down.
Cooper, 67, whose compensation totaled $1.3 million in 2010, even added CEO to his title of rector. He began listing himself first on the annual directory of vestry members.
Among the perks Cooper negotiated was a lavish home in SoHo, a Federal-style townhouse built in the 1820s with a price tag of $5.5 million.
“He chose the residence and said this shall be the rectory,” a former board member said. “Not in recent history . . . has the church ever provided so extravagant a living arrangement for the rector, but that’s what he wanted.”
The church bought the property, located in a landmark district, and has sunk hundreds of thousands more into its upkeep and renovation, recently installing new windows to the tune of $100,000.
Cooper also convinced the church to pay him a cash housing allowance, which totaled $115,313 in 2010, ostensibly for the home he still owned in Florida.
His $1.3 million compensation package also included a salary of $346,391 and deferred compensation of $507,940, according to 2010 tax documents, the latest available.
Jim, Rod Parsley wanted me to ask you if you remember that you’re supposed to be a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not Donald Trump.
Instead of concentrating on the endowment, Cooper began planning for a grand development on Trinity Place. He proposed tearing down two Trinity-owned buildings across from the church. One, a 25-story tower at 74 Trinity Place, housed the church offices, its preschool and a gathering place for parishioners.
Cooper wanted to build a luxury condominium tower, with church offices on the lower floors. He also looked at buying the adjacent American Stock Exchange and demolishing it, even though the building has long been considered for landmark status.
Another former board member said Cooper spent years studying the condo development, “not at all paying attention to the principal focus of those that hired him, which was try to solve the problem and try to make the church more of a powerful force in the philanthropy world.”
Pope Julius II just e-mailed to ask how much your Great Seal cost, what gestatorial chairs are going for these days and to let you know that there’s a slot waiting for you in the Renaissance Popes Club when you get…over there. He says he pulled some strings and called in some favors.
Trinity has had a long tradition of global giving and has taken credit for being one of the early opponents of apartheid in South Africa. It gave millions to the activist Bishop Desmond Tutu.
But for years, Trinity’s grant program gave out only $2.7 million annually, despite having the resources to fund more causes, a former board member said.
More money was spent on church publicity in one year — $5 million — than grants.
Last year, Trinity doled out grants to causes including a jobs program in Bedford-Stuyvesant and to churches in Africa.
Cooper traveled to Africa on church business but found time to fit in at least one safari, with his family along, at Trinity’s expense. The church also paid for jaunts to Asia and Australia.
If you’re interested, here’s a short summary of Trinity’s real estate holdings.
Trinity’s $1 billion empire
Trinity Church is one of the largest landowners in Manhattan, with some 6 million square feet of commercial space. The holdings also include a chapel on Governors Island and a cemetery in northern Manhattan and numerous office buildings in the Hudson Square area.
Trinity Church
Broadway at Wall Street
Trinity Church offices
74 Trinity Place 25 stories
Trinity Cemetery and Mausoleum
770 Riverside Drive
St. Paul’s Chapel
Broadway at Fulton Street
PLUS
A $5.5 million townhouse at 37 Charlton St. bought for rector the Rev. James Cooper
Selected Hudson Square commercial properties (the church owns 14) and notable tenants:
225 Varick St.
12 stories, 236,749 sq. ft.
National Audubon Society, HSBC
75 Varick St.
17 stories,
1,174,100 sq. ft.
Getty Images,
New York magazine
160-170 Varick St.
12 stories,
349,720 square feet
Hudson Square Market
143 Varick St.
2 stories, 38,055 sq. ft.
City Winery
200 Hudson St.
12 stories, 386,820 sq. ft.; 92YTribeca
345 Hudson St.
17 stories,
984,432 sq. ft.
Viacom
435 Hudson St.
9 stories, 291,064 sq. ft.
L’Oreal USA,
NY Review of Books
And if the first words that popped into your head or mouth were, “Yeah, well, the Vatican..,” just stop right there. The Roman Catholic Church is, well, an entire church that’s been around for something over 179 years. Trinity-Wall Street is only one really old and really loaded Episcopal PARISH.
Slight difference there, yo.
During a Sunday morning service at Trinity Church last summer, a longtime parishioner looked around during the reading of the Gospel and counted the worshippers.
By her tally, there were 49 people in the pews of the historic lower Manhattan church — a meager turnout for the storied, 314-year-old parish.
She was puzzled, then, when the next week’s church bulletin reported attendance at 113.
Trinity’s rector, the Rev. James Cooper, had decided that tourists who wander in and out of the chapel should be counted as well, she was told.
“That’s just a little snapshot into the way he presents everything,” said the parishioner, who was also a member of the governing board until she resigned in protest. “Everything has a little bit of truth to it but a lot of deception around it.”
Playing fast and loose with the numbers, and official church records, is one of the many complaints that dog the man who heads the richest parish in the Anglican world, a church with at least $1 billion in Manhattan real estate.
Paula White thinks you need to get your priorities straight.
Cooper was supposed to be the guardian angel of Trinity. Instead, former board members say his dictatorial style of leadership and grandiose ambitions have fomented insurrection in the staid Episcopal community. They accuse him of undermining Trinity’s mission of good works since taking over as rector in 2004.
Instead of helping the poor, Cooper’s helped himself — with demands for a $5.5 million SoHo townhouse, an allowance for his Florida condo, trips around the world including an African safari and a fat salary.
Rather than building an endowment, he is accused of wasting more than $1 million on development plans for a luxury condo tower that has been likened to a pipe dream and burning another $5 million on a publicity campaign.
Because nobody knows about a church that’s been around over 200 years and is the most historic Anglican church in the United States. This story was the first time that I’d ever heard of the place, except for all those other times. But who needs feck anyway? Jim Bakker can’t believe how much jack my man is pulling down.
Cooper, 67, whose compensation totaled $1.3 million in 2010, even added CEO to his title of rector. He began listing himself first on the annual directory of vestry members.
Among the perks Cooper negotiated was a lavish home in SoHo, a Federal-style townhouse built in the 1820s with a price tag of $5.5 million.
“He chose the residence and said this shall be the rectory,” a former board member said. “Not in recent history . . . has the church ever provided so extravagant a living arrangement for the rector, but that’s what he wanted.”
The church bought the property, located in a landmark district, and has sunk hundreds of thousands more into its upkeep and renovation, recently installing new windows to the tune of $100,000.
Cooper also convinced the church to pay him a cash housing allowance, which totaled $115,313 in 2010, ostensibly for the home he still owned in Florida.
His $1.3 million compensation package also included a salary of $346,391 and deferred compensation of $507,940, according to 2010 tax documents, the latest available.
Jim, Rod Parsley wanted me to ask you if you remember that you’re supposed to be a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not Donald Trump.
Instead of concentrating on the endowment, Cooper began planning for a grand development on Trinity Place. He proposed tearing down two Trinity-owned buildings across from the church. One, a 25-story tower at 74 Trinity Place, housed the church offices, its preschool and a gathering place for parishioners.
Cooper wanted to build a luxury condominium tower, with church offices on the lower floors. He also looked at buying the adjacent American Stock Exchange and demolishing it, even though the building has long been considered for landmark status.
Another former board member said Cooper spent years studying the condo development, “not at all paying attention to the principal focus of those that hired him, which was try to solve the problem and try to make the church more of a powerful force in the philanthropy world.”
Pope Julius II just e-mailed to ask how much your Great Seal cost, what gestatorial chairs are going for these days and to let you know that there’s a slot waiting for you in the Renaissance Popes Club when you get…over there. He says he pulled some strings and called in some favors.
Trinity has had a long tradition of global giving and has taken credit for being one of the early opponents of apartheid in South Africa. It gave millions to the activist Bishop Desmond Tutu.
But for years, Trinity’s grant program gave out only $2.7 million annually, despite having the resources to fund more causes, a former board member said.
More money was spent on church publicity in one year — $5 million — than grants.
Last year, Trinity doled out grants to causes including a jobs program in Bedford-Stuyvesant and to churches in Africa.
Cooper traveled to Africa on church business but found time to fit in at least one safari, with his family along, at Trinity’s expense. The church also paid for jaunts to Asia and Australia.
If you’re interested, here’s a short summary of Trinity’s real estate holdings.
Trinity’s $1 billion empire
Trinity Church is one of the largest landowners in Manhattan, with some 6 million square feet of commercial space. The holdings also include a chapel on Governors Island and a cemetery in northern Manhattan and numerous office buildings in the Hudson Square area.
Trinity Church
Broadway at Wall Street
Trinity Church offices
74 Trinity Place 25 stories
Trinity Cemetery and Mausoleum
770 Riverside Drive
St. Paul’s Chapel
Broadway at Fulton Street
PLUS
A $5.5 million townhouse at 37 Charlton St. bought for rector the Rev. James Cooper
Selected Hudson Square commercial properties (the church owns 14) and notable tenants:
225 Varick St.
12 stories, 236,749 sq. ft.
National Audubon Society, HSBC
75 Varick St.
17 stories,
1,174,100 sq. ft.
Getty Images,
New York magazine
160-170 Varick St.
12 stories,
349,720 square feet
Hudson Square Market
143 Varick St.
2 stories, 38,055 sq. ft.
City Winery
200 Hudson St.
12 stories, 386,820 sq. ft.; 92YTribeca
345 Hudson St.
17 stories,
984,432 sq. ft.
Viacom
435 Hudson St.
9 stories, 291,064 sq. ft.
L’Oreal USA,
NY Review of Books
And if the first words that popped into your head or mouth were, “Yeah, well, the Vatican..,” just stop right there. The Roman Catholic Church is, well, an entire church that’s been around for something over 179 years. Trinity-Wall Street is only one really old and really loaded Episcopal PARISH.
Slight difference there, yo.
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