RIO GRANDE: Pro cathedral majority votes to sever ties, agrees to buy property
Episcopal News Service. September 17, 2007 [091707-06]
Mary Frances Schjonberg
A majority of the members of the Pro Cathedral Episcopal Church of St. Clement in El Paso, Texas, voted September 16 to sever ties with the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande and the Episcopal Church.
The 460-41 vote came during a parish meeting following Sunday worship. Those voting at the meeting also approved a deal for the departing members to retain the cathedral property for $2 million.
The notice of the September 16 special parish meeting told parishioners that a new entity, "the New Church of St. Clement," was formed on August 23 and that the founding members were the current vestry of the pro cathedral. The members had already adopted bylaws which are essentially the same bylaws as the pro cathedral's but without any reference to the diocese or the Episcopal Church, the notice said.
Parishioners were told that the new church would pay the $2 million from a $1 million "grant" from "trust funds belonging to the Pro Cathedral" and a $1 million loan, "at a commercially reasonable rate," from St. Clement Episcopal Parish School Inc., which was founded by and is still affiliated with the pro cathedral.
In a letter to the diocese in the pre-convocation issue of the diocesan newspaper, posted before the vote, Rio Grande Bishop Jeffrey Steenson predicted the departure and said: "The Trustees of the Diocese and I have worked long hours this summer to create a transition plan that we believe is the best solution available to protect the mission of the diocese, to respect the people of St. Clement's, and to enhance the image of the Episcopal Church in El Paso."
He wrote that the plan would "require sacrifices from all the parties involved, but our prayer is that it will also release us all to move forward in our call to serve the Lord."
He noted that the pro cathedral provides "very significant support … to the life and mission of the diocese" along with "a number of effective diocesan leaders."
Steenson wrote that "an acute sense of alienation from the Episcopal Church … has led St. Clement's to take these steps, and many in this diocese feel the same way." But, he added, the departure "raises a difficult problem for the diocesan leadership, since they have responsibility for being good stewards of the resources of the diocese, including its congregations."
He later told the St. Clement's members in a September 4 letter that he "personally agree[d] with the leadership of St. Clement's about where the Episcopal Church seems to be heading."
"But as a bishop under the authority of this Church there are certain obligations and responsibilities to be observed," he added, going on to summarize what he called "the perspective of the Episcopal Church" which holds "that all real and personal property of a congregation is owned not by the local congregation but by the Diocese and Episcopal Church" and that parishes cannot be dissolved by congregational votes.
Steenson said in that letter that, being bound by those rules, he, the trustees of the diocese, the standing committee and the diocese were "willing to try to find a negotiated settlement that may allow St. Clement's to become an independent congregation with its existing facilities."
The El Paso Times newspaper reported September 17 that Steenson's stance had facilitated the negotiations that led to the $2 million deal, which the newspaper reported had been signed on September 14.
"I'm very excited about the future of St. Clement's," the Very Rev. William Cobb, rector of St. Clement's, told the newspaper.
Edwina Beard, an Episcopalian who lives in Albuquerque, told the El Paso Times that she was dismayed to learn about the negotiations.
"The leadership of the diocese has not engaged in open and transparent business about this," said Beard, who opposes any resolution that allows St. Clement's to keep property. "People are free to leave but I feel very strongly as an Episcopalian in this diocese that I have an investment in that property."
The Rio Grande diocese maintains its main cathedral, the Cathedral Church of Saint John, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The members and leadership of another large Episcopal parish in El Paso, St. Francis on the Hill, is reportedly debating its future relationship with the diocese and the Episcopal Church.
The Diocese of the Rio Grande comprises about 15,100 Episcopalians worshipping in 57 congregations in New Mexico and Texas.