Sorge Instituted, Calls Special Convention
Episcopal News Service. September 15, 1983 [83168]
EASTON, Md. (DPS, Sept. 15) -- The Rt. Rev. Elliott L. Sorge, in his initial action as the eighth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Easton, announced he will call a special convention Nov. 13, "to resolve in a positive way" the issues that have arisen over the diocese's purchase of a residence for the new bishop.
Sorge announced the step on the day of his installation after three weeks of controversy that began when a parish in the diocese tried to sue to halt purchase and financing of a residence. At issue was a ten-room house on an eight-acre, wooded riverfront property and a $250,000 short term note that the diocese took out to finance it until another diocesan property and Sorge's own suburban New York home could be sold.
The Rev. Thomas Stuhr and the lay leaders of Shrewsbury parish have postponed further legal action until after the special convention. Their initial injunction was not served until after the property sale had been closed.
In announcing the special convention, Sorge said the convention delegates representing the diocese's 6,500 communicants in Maryland's nine Eastern Shore counties, will consider alternate proposals for financing the property on Island Creek in Talbot County.
When Bishop Sorge's predecessor, Bishop W. Moultrie Moore, Jr. announced his retirement, he charged a special committee with the task of finding suitable housing for the new bishop and suggested three alternatives: keeping the 2,800 sq. ft., one-story, three bedroom house in Easton that the diocese has owned since 1967; the purchase of a home by the new bishop or by the diocese.
All three finalists, including Sorge, said that, if elected, they would not plan to live in the Easton house.
When Sorge was elected, the search for a residence to meet his needs (he is married and has three college age children) began. The choice of the special committee was the Island Creek site, 8 miles from the diocesan center in Easton. The house, of contemporary design, has 2,400 sq. ft. of living space in 2 stories, including four bedrooms.
"The fact that the owner was willing to make a $40,000 contribution to the diocese as a reduction in the selling price made the purchase all the more attractive," a diocesan spokesman said. "Diocesan officials were thereby encouraged to explore purchase plans that would be advantageous to both the new bishop and to the diocese."
"The plans are really quite simple and straightforward, based on the best thinking of attorneys, accountants and others with financial expertise within the diocese," according to Richard Daspit, the diocesan treasurer, who was among officials who presented the proposals to Sorge.
Part of the issue is likely to be resolved before the convention because the diocesan council has agreed to accept a $135,000 bid on the Easton property. The convention will be asked to look at different plans all of which involve Sorge committing about $125,000 which he is expected to realize from the sale of his home and using it either to purchase an option on the home or use it as a down payment on an outright purchase.
In calling the special convention, Sorge stressed that" the convention constitutes the representative and legal authority of the diocese and is therefore the forum in which issues are properly resolved." He said parishes of the diocese will be briefed and the plans for purchase of the bishop's house discussed at meetings of the three geographical convocations of the diocese before the convention.
Sorge said his most important objective is to bring peace to the diocese "so we can all work together and move forward toward fulfilling what the diocese perceives can be done on behalf of the extension of Christs' kingdom."
Sorge, who served as a missionary bishop in Brazil and for the past seven years has been an executive of the Episcopal Church Center, was instituted Sept. 10. He was elected at a special diocesan convention on April 30 on a first ballot vote that was unprecedented in the 110-year history of the diocese.