A SPECIAL REPORT
By David W. Virtue and Mary Ann Mueller
www.virtueonline.org
December 16, 2010
A special VOL investigation into the state of Episcopal cathedrals across the U.S. has revealed that many are living on borrowed time, while a handful are thriving in difficult economic circumstances. Cathedrals usually occupy prime real estate locations in major cities, locations that, should they go out of business, offer great opportunities for developers or evangelical mega churches.The cathedral of the Diocese of Western Michigan - the diocese of the now deceased Bishop Charles E. Bennison, Sr. - was sold to an evangelical mega-church for less than the price to build it. The diocese is now without a cathedral. Fire sales can be expected in other dioceses across the US in the next decade.
Of the some 100 domestic dioceses in the Episcopal Church, 18 dioceses have no cathedrals including: Alaska, East Carolina, Eastern Michigan, Eastern Oregon, North Texas (Fort Worth); Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Northern Michigan, Northwest Texas, Rochester, San Joaquin, Southern Virginia, Southwestern Virginia, West Texas, West Virginia, Western Michigan and the Navajoland.
2 comments:
"For many [cathedrals], trust funds and endowments are all that is sustaining them."
That reminds me of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. With an $80 million endowment and growing, it only has 60-some M. Div students per class, and yet they pay through the nose to go there. Then they have all the non-M.Div. filler GED students (DELTO, etc) who have no business being there. Of course, the deaconesses are all pretty so I can't say anything about them.
Meanwhile, Dean Wenthe is retiring from Ft. Wayne. I guess he thought that making Ft. Wayne as expensive as Yale Seminary was enough of a life achievement, and everything else would just be anticlimactic.
Lutheran cathedrals – and they call themselves Protestants. Who are they kidding? They continue to indulge in the old trappings and ways of the Roman Catholic Church.
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