TO WHOM MUCH IS GIVEN
If any Episcopal parish deserves the title of most important in the Episcopal Church, it would have to be Trinity in Manhattan, also known as Trinity-Wall Street. It is one of this country’s oldest and most historic churches. George Washington had a pew there and Alexander Hamilton is buried on its grounds.
Trinity is also probably the wealthiest parish in TEO. Here’s how much money it gave out in grants just last year. But now the epicenter of American Anglicanism finds itself embroiled in controversy. Seems that some folks at Trinity are a little too generous:
Trinity Church is having a crisis of faith.
Nearly half of the church’s board of directors has resigned in the past six months in a dispute with its rector over the direction and mission of the 314-year-old Episcopal church, which became a symbol of downtown’s resilience and recovery in the wake of 9/11.
According to these vestry members, feckless Trinity rector James Cooper spends church money like a particularly sleazy televangelist.
They accuse the Rev. James Cooper, the church’s rector and chief executive officer, of lavishly overspending church funds on Bach concerts and other events, and planning an opulent overhaul of the church’s office space at 68-74 Trinity Place rather than focusing on his ministry and helping the poor.
Feck costs a lot of money, I guess. But either the Trinity staff are the stupidest group of people in the world or their negligence comes perilously close to criminal.
Later, when the vestry discovered that the church had overspent its 2011 music budget by $800,000, it briefly killed its popular “Bach at One” lunchtime music series.
The vestry is responsible for approving the church’s budget, but was not told of the cost overrun until the money was already spent, members said.
“Either the staff was completely not on top of the music program, or they unilaterally decided to overspend,” a former vestry member said.
The church restored the program March 5, but sources said they feared there was still no plan to keep costs under control.
Think about that for a second. I don’t know what Trinity budgets for music programs but I suspect that it’s quite a bit. Not only did the church exceed its music budget by $800,000, it never seems to have occurred to anyone to even let the vestry know, never mind get its approval.
Some of you may be in charge of a budget where you work. If you go a few hundred dollars or so over your budget, you might get frowned at and probably receive a budget increase for next year.
But if the accounting department informs your boss that your department spent 100% more than it had been allocated, then your boss will have four words for you. Clean out your desk. However nobody at Trinity will ever hear those words as long as Jim Cooper remains rector.
When Cooper decided to remain at Trinity, those who had asked him to step down began requesting a third-party review of his leadership, so that the vestry as a whole could get an independent opinion, former vestry members said.
Instead, Cooper appointed a vestry member who supported him to oversee the inquiry, and the review was mostly superficial, former vestry members said.
The situation finally boiled over in February, when the vestry’s Nominating Committee took the unusual step of not re-nominating four vestry members who had criticized Cooper. Vestry members are generally re-nominated each year until they reach retirement age or a maximum of seven consecutive terms.
Between Feb. 13 and Feb. 24, the four members who were not re-nominated resigned, as did four other members of the vestry, according to resignation letters obtained by DNAinfo.
“I adore Trinity and am proud to have been associated with this great institution, at least during the first few years of my tenure on the Vestry,” one member wrote to Cooper in a resignation letter.
“I also know that Trinity will survive long term,” the letter continued. “After all, it has endured plagues, famines, revolutions, wars and a host of other challenges over its 314-year history.
“It will certainly survive your administration as well.”
All of a sudden, Trinity’s abominable clown eucharist of a few years ago suddenly makes a whole lot more sense. Trinity-Wall Street, if you need it.
Trinity is also probably the wealthiest parish in TEO. Here’s how much money it gave out in grants just last year. But now the epicenter of American Anglicanism finds itself embroiled in controversy. Seems that some folks at Trinity are a little too generous:
Trinity Church is having a crisis of faith.
Nearly half of the church’s board of directors has resigned in the past six months in a dispute with its rector over the direction and mission of the 314-year-old Episcopal church, which became a symbol of downtown’s resilience and recovery in the wake of 9/11.
According to these vestry members, feckless Trinity rector James Cooper spends church money like a particularly sleazy televangelist.
They accuse the Rev. James Cooper, the church’s rector and chief executive officer, of lavishly overspending church funds on Bach concerts and other events, and planning an opulent overhaul of the church’s office space at 68-74 Trinity Place rather than focusing on his ministry and helping the poor.
Feck costs a lot of money, I guess. But either the Trinity staff are the stupidest group of people in the world or their negligence comes perilously close to criminal.
Later, when the vestry discovered that the church had overspent its 2011 music budget by $800,000, it briefly killed its popular “Bach at One” lunchtime music series.
The vestry is responsible for approving the church’s budget, but was not told of the cost overrun until the money was already spent, members said.
“Either the staff was completely not on top of the music program, or they unilaterally decided to overspend,” a former vestry member said.
The church restored the program March 5, but sources said they feared there was still no plan to keep costs under control.
Think about that for a second. I don’t know what Trinity budgets for music programs but I suspect that it’s quite a bit. Not only did the church exceed its music budget by $800,000, it never seems to have occurred to anyone to even let the vestry know, never mind get its approval.
Some of you may be in charge of a budget where you work. If you go a few hundred dollars or so over your budget, you might get frowned at and probably receive a budget increase for next year.
But if the accounting department informs your boss that your department spent 100% more than it had been allocated, then your boss will have four words for you. Clean out your desk. However nobody at Trinity will ever hear those words as long as Jim Cooper remains rector.
When Cooper decided to remain at Trinity, those who had asked him to step down began requesting a third-party review of his leadership, so that the vestry as a whole could get an independent opinion, former vestry members said.
Instead, Cooper appointed a vestry member who supported him to oversee the inquiry, and the review was mostly superficial, former vestry members said.
The situation finally boiled over in February, when the vestry’s Nominating Committee took the unusual step of not re-nominating four vestry members who had criticized Cooper. Vestry members are generally re-nominated each year until they reach retirement age or a maximum of seven consecutive terms.
Between Feb. 13 and Feb. 24, the four members who were not re-nominated resigned, as did four other members of the vestry, according to resignation letters obtained by DNAinfo.
“I adore Trinity and am proud to have been associated with this great institution, at least during the first few years of my tenure on the Vestry,” one member wrote to Cooper in a resignation letter.
“I also know that Trinity will survive long term,” the letter continued. “After all, it has endured plagues, famines, revolutions, wars and a host of other challenges over its 314-year history.
“It will certainly survive your administration as well.”
All of a sudden, Trinity’s abominable clown eucharist of a few years ago suddenly makes a whole lot more sense. Trinity-Wall Street, if you need it.
No comments:
Post a Comment