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| Father Reid |
| Divisive hire. |
VirtueOnline - News - Exclusives - PHILADELPHIA: St. Clement's: Smells, Bells, Gay Curate, lawsuit talk - UPDATED:
Following my story on the hiring of a gay curate at St. Clement's and the fallout from lawyers being consulted, a Vestryman wrote VOL with new information including a story that Fr. Gordon Reid (a bachelor) was not entirely truthful about the facts and history of the church and his own personal stake in what is happening in the parish.
The Vestryman wrote, "We have not had a Curate at St. Clement's since Fr Richard Wall left for another parish a few years ago, and no budget passed since then has included provision for a Curate's salary. In April of 2011 Canon Reid announced to the Vestry that he intended to start a 'Curate Fund' to raise money off budget to cover salary, benefits, etc. Although some money was raised, it was not even sufficient to cover nine months at the minimum prescribed by the diocese. Nevertheless, Canon Reid found Mr. Jewett and presented him to the Vestry as a fait accompli, suggesting that we should invade the endowment principal to pay him, which we refused to do. It is true that the more we learned about Mr. Jewett, the less enthused we were about having him as our Curate; he is the antithesis of everything that makes up traditional Anglo-Catholicism.
"This gave rise to an ongoing conflict between ten members of the Vestry, who are in favor of fiscal prudence and a continuation of the traditional faith and practice that S. Clement's has been known for, and Canon Reid and two other Vestrymen, who are in favor of making S. Clement's into a "normal" Episcopal church and spending down the endowments to maintain an ultimately unsupportable approach to parish finances.
"One of the first "casualties" was our long-time Rector's Warden, John Lilley. He was not fired because he would not support the hiring of Ethan Jewett, but because he was opposed to Canon Reid's intent to transform (or destroy, depending on your point of view) S. Clement's, and because Canon Reid wanted someone he could control as his Warden. Canon Reid appointed Ron Emrich, one of his close personal friends. Ron came to both Anglicanism and S. Clement's during Canon Reid's incumbency, and he has little or no appreciation for Anglo-Catholicism apart from the music. John Lilley has dedicated the last forty years of his life to S. Clements, in every capacity from parish administrator, in the sacristy, as a server, etc., etc. He was dismissed from all of these roles, and not only that of Rector's Warden. Initially, Canon Reid attempted to persuade people that John had resigned, and when the truth was revealed there was a general outrage in the congregation.
PARISH WEBSITE
"One of the ways in which the remaining members of the Vestry tried to inform the rest of the parish and the wider church about our commitment to traditional Anglo-Catholicism and fiscal prudence was to put items on the parish website. This was rejected by Canon Reid, who stated that only he could publish anything in the name of the parish. Some history is needed here. The website was registered by an individual Vestryman in 1996, and paid for privately until 2005. That Vestryman and several other parishioners over the years put a lot of time and effort into the website. In 2004, Canon Reid put Marc Coleman in charge of the website, and requested the domain be put in the name of the parish to make it easier for Mr. Coleman to add content and functionality. This was done. Later, unknown to the Vestry, the registration was transferred from the parish to Marc's company, Tactile Design. So recently when we contested the Rector's exclusive use of the website, Marc Coleman asserted as his personal property, which led to the (quite correct) accusations of theft.
"Canon Reid's claim that the Vestry was trying to restrict his access to the website is patently false.
"Hence the high legal bills, as the Vestry attempted to regain access to the website. Fully half of that bill was incurred by the Rector and the Rector's Warden, who were, it should be noted, the only parties to demand an in-person meeting with the attorney. The simple fact is that if this illicit transfer had never occurred, these legal bills would not exist. Canon Reid and Mr. Coleman, and no one else, are responsible for these costs having been incurred. Regarding Canon Reid's assertion that the Chancellor would have provided legal advice at no cost, the Rector on several occasions claimed that she told him that she agreed with him about everything. When asked to show us emails, letters, etc., the Rector refused to do so. So it is another lie that we could have made use of the Diocesan Chancellor in this instance.
"The number of Vestrymen who resigned as servers was three and not six as Canon Reid claims; two others, John Lilley and one other person was fired. Only John Lilley resigned as a Vestryman; five others were voted off in the recent election, leaving only five traditional Anglo-Catholics on the Vestry.
FINANCIAL STATE OF THE PARISH
"The financial state of the parish is not good. All three of our professional endowment managers have strongly recommended that our draw downs from the endowment income should be decreased. The Vestry in its budget passed in December started a phased decrease. While our endowment totals are up of late, this is only because of the partial recovery since the 2008 crash; the difference between now and, say, 2006 paints a far less optimistic picture. Additionally, the amount of the Wippel bequest is overstated, and the amount to be received from the sale of the house is not known, nor do we know when it will be received.
"For Canon Reid to suggest that we can spend the money since we already spend so much on music is misleading. In fact, it was at his insistence that we have kept the music spending at levels that were really only sustainable when we had a benefactor who was willing to underwrite the additional costs. That benefactor has since died, but Canon Reid has been openly hostile to any suggestion that the music budget should be decreased. I would be the first person to speak in favor of a professional choir, etc., in support of our liturgical ethos. After all, that's the reason that many of these legacies were left to us in the first place, for just that purpose. That said, it could be had for far less than we have been spending.
"The Rector took a major part in the process of the Vestry election, subverting the principle of lay governance that the Episcopal Church is guided by. His newsletter article was an indictment of the current Vestry and contained numerous falsehoods, and at the parish meeting he demanded that his candidates be elected. This proved successful. Although the election was close, those who voted for the Rector's candidates were frequently those who attended S. Clement's two or three times a year, and those who are regular attendees generally voted for the incumbents.
"After the election of the new Vestry they ended the legal action against Mr. Coleman, and increased the draw from the endowments, contrary to what our fund managers have advised. They passed a revised budget which increases the total expense line to $614,772, over 18% than what was spent last year, and this includes a significant degree of deficit spending.
"Mention also needs to be made of the relationship between Canon Reid, Ron Emrich, Marc Coleman, and Curt Mangel. They are also close personal friends, and socialize together multiple times during the week. Ron and Marc had a civil partnership in Connecticut, which was solemnized in some sense by Canon Reid. Curt is a tenant of Ron and Marc. Ron is now Rector's Warden and Curt is the Accounting Warden.
AUDIT
"The audit which the Rector mentions was requested by him and not the Diocese of Pennsylvania. Thus far it has revealed absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, which the former Accounting Warden has heard repeatedly from the bookkeeper appointed by the auditors. There is nothing seriously amiss; this is another blatant lie.
"I'd like to emphasize that we still hope to help S. Clement's through this present crisis and see it restored as a traditional Anglo-Catholic parish in the Diocese of Pennsylvania. We certainly understand that some believe this to be a fool's errand, but it is what we feel called to do at the present time. We believe that all we want to do is preserve the legacy that we've been entrusted with."
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