A 2012-2014 strategic plan for Washington National Cathedral will help place the cathedral on a firmer financial footing, the cathedral’s dean, the Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, said June 5. He said the strategic plan, which includes both short- and long-term objectives, precedes a capital campaign, which will kick off shortly.
Speaking at the cathedral during a participatory town hall meeting, Lloyd said the challenge “that has haunted the cathedral from the beginning” is how it can prevent “monetary asphyxiation” (a phrase used by the cathedral’s late dean Francis Sayre) and sustain itself.
Strengthening the cathedral’s endowment is essential to avoid “endlessly having to chase that money,” the dean said. “We know the need is great,” he said. “We need a $400 million endowment to be sustainable for the ages; this is a first step.” (The current endowment is about $51 million.)
This must be a particularly difficult era in which to try to boost an endowment that much. The actions of the national church have not helped.
My view is historical: Somehow the Cathedral stayed afloat, raised funds, maintained the CoP even during the Depression. Perhaps it was easier to raise money for construction than for simply carrying on. I lost sight in this account of Dean Lloyd’s interest in focusing the Cathedral on being a local congregation. Also, I wonder if the newish mission will, as the British say, end up with the whole enterprise falling badly between two stools: Episcopal and national, with neither constituency quite feeling a sense of ownership. It’s a heckuva building and it’s definitely got location, so I’d hate to see its best days behind it so (relatively) soon after its completion (twenty years ago). But, as Episcopal historians know, cathedrals, frankly, come in and out of fashion. I can’t help thinking that lean times call for leaner edifices.
And on the College of Preachers: also a shame because I don’t know of a time when the Episcopal Church stood more in need of outstanding preaching. Episcopalians have a tendency, even in the best times, to place too much emphasis on liturgy and let that carry the rest of it; but people can’t help liking and being moved by great preaching. And it’s rare that I hear a really good sermon in an Episcopal church these days. The last two sermons I heard the priests (a man in one case, a woman in the other) read manuscripts word for word. That’s fine if you write like Austin Farrer; not so good if your written prose is pretty pedestrian. I visit Protestant churches where the preaching is sometimes much, much better–and the main reason simply seems to be that the preachers work really hard at it. That’s where the CoP came in. Noble Powell–when he was both dean and warden just before WW II–loved both institutions, and he was keenly aware of the transformative effect College programs had on men’s preaching–just because seasoned clergy’s efforts were constructively listened to and critiqued.
[blockquote]Lloyd said the vision in the strategic plan, which includes four overall goals, is meant to inspire people to think of Washington National Cathedral as the spiritual home of the nation and a convener of issue-oriented public national gatherings.[/blockquote]
Why not focus on what it was built to be, a Christian house of worship.
RE: ““We need a $400 million endowment to be sustainable for the ages . . . ”
Let’s hope — given its current product — that that won’t happen. The last thing I want is for an organization with a shoddy product to be “sustainable for the ages.”
“a Christian house of worship.”
Well, they can’t. It was built to be “a house of prayer for all people.” And there is already a Christian house of worship only a few yards away. So the WNC really needs to be a TEC cathedral, a Christian house of worship, AND a gathering place for the nation all in one.
An idea–probably not a very good one: Looks to me like there’s an incredible need for TEC to cut costs. Why not move all of TEC hq to the Washington cathedral close? Use the offices of the old CoP? As things stand, the presiding bishop’s chair is 200 miles away from her office, which must make for a lot of standing around. Alternatively, why not sell stakes in the WNC to other mainline denominations and really make it a mainstream house of prayer for all? The historical problem is that the days of the Episcopal Establishment ended around 1970. TEC enjoyed a status for much of the 20th c. that made the WNC a natural center of national spiritual focus. In many large cities in the East, the Episcopal bishop was the spokesperson for Protestantism. That hasn’t been true for quite a while. So there are a lot of intersecting historical and therefore financial problems here.
I will go further and say that the days of Christian Establishment in this county ended around 1970–more like 1974, because organized religion suffered as part of the general social/cultural distrust of authority that was caused by Watergate,and is now part of our national personality. Secularism is now so much of the warp and woof of the American character that the idea of some “national house of worship” just doesn’t make sense to most people. Unfortunately, in the minds of many Americans, the idea of “separation of Church and State” is now equivalent to “separation of Church and Society”–religious faith is only acceptable when it is intensely personal…but never when it is reaches across society as a whole. So the idea of the “house of prayer for all the American people” doesn’t in to people’s concept of spirituality.
For this reason, the analysis in #1 is exactly correct. The fundraising effort is going to face a lot of challenges because it tries to straddle two distinct, and maybe contradictory approaches. If the Dean and Chapter “lead” by emphasizing the ecumenical bases of the Cathedral, committed Episcopalians are not going to be particularly inclined to lend much support (as an Episcopalian, I am much more inclined to support causes that are clearly and wholeheartedly within my own tradition than fuzzy, theologically generic causes). And if they try to appeal to Episcopalians, then people outside that Church aren’t going to be moved to support the effort (as an Episcopalian, I don’t support congregations of other denominations; why should members of other religions, or of none at all, support Episcopal institutions)?
I think it is appropriate that Dean Sayre was Woodrow Wilson’s grandson. The whole concept of the institution seems to harken back to a long gone era of American history. Ultimately, the National Cathedral may find itself as a beautiful edifice in search of a purpose.
Was that National or Crystal?
[blockquote] “Monetary Asphyxiation.”[/blockquote]Isn’t this just a sophisticated phrase for bankruptcy?[blockquote] We need a $400 million endowment to be sustainable for the ages[/blockquote] So I can understand why the organization would want $400,000,000 in the bank, but is this actually the best usage a church can make of $400,000,000 dollars? The actual motivation appears to be little more than “Give us a lot of money so that we never have to concern ourselves with donors again. That way we can do what we want when we want and never suffer financial impact.” It’s like tenure for church bureaucrats.
carl
The “new strategic plan.”
I notice that they aren’t actually planning to do anything. They are ‘being’ things. Liberals are big on ‘being’ instead of ‘doing.’ Evidently ‘being something’ entitles you to $400,00,000. [blockquote] being a sacred place, welcoming the country to pray, commemorate, celebrate and mourn [/blockquote] So there is a rousing start. Let’s pretty much envision ourselves as we already envision ourselves. [blockquote] being a historic landmark and national treasure symbolizing the role of faith in America [/blockquote] Complete with a Darth Vader gargoyle. This plan does seem to lack originality however. Perhaps we are reading the plan from 2001 instead of 2011. [blockquote] being a living, Christian community in the Episcopal tradition welcoming people of all faiths[/blockquote] So they have encountered a new idea. They want to be a ‘living Christian’ community instead of a dead collection of paganism. KJS might not like it so much, though. $51 million is enough for her to sue and seize the assets if anyone gets any ideas about making the National Cathedral into a ‘living Christian community.’ [blockquote] being a leader in convening people of all faiths to examine and respond to important issues in the world[/blockquote] Now there is a radical suggestion. All they forgot are the art exhibits.
OK, so is it just me, or does this plan consist of nothing more than “Let’s keep being exactly what we already think we are, but get people to give us a lot of money for being it.”
carl
If TEC wins the property battles with Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Quincy, Virginia, and San Joaquin, the PB may provide about $200 million. Only one half but a good start. Statmann
Where are the historic endowments of the great Temple of Karnak? Come on, an endowment for the ages? Yeah, right.
Statmann, good point, however is $200 million the book value of the relevant properties? If so, then it wouldn’t follow that KJS would have $200 million to give to the endowment, even if she did win all the law suits.
Also, there seems to be a hidden issue here: I assume that the endowment has not changed significantly. Has there in fact been a significant drop in the Cathedral’s income?
Does anyone know why the College of Preachers was closed down? Did it lose a sense of its mission, or was it simply cost-cutting?
#12, cost-cutting.
#11, an underground parking garage was built about 8 years ago. It cost several million to put it underground (which in the long run will be a good thing), right when it was completed the economy went bad and the expected interest from the endowment disappeared. The cathedral found itself having difficulty coming up with the money to pay for the garage. It’s been suffering financially ever since then.
MichaelA: Fort Worth (ACNA) has put a $100 million number on its prroperty at stake. I have a hunch that $200 million is maybe close. I realize that tthe TEC dioceses will “get” the property but it is only in Trust to TEC. I cannot imagine that TEC would let the tiny TEC diocese of Fort Worth keep the $100 million. We are “talking” wealth here. Statmann
Statmann,
I agree, however I wasn’t thinking so much of whether TEC or the diocese gets it, but whether a $200 million property portfolio can be equated to an investment fund of $200 million in cash, in practical terms. I think this Dean is after liquid funds, which can be invested appropriately and generate an income for the liberal activities of the cathedral.
From that point of view, $200 million in property is very different to $200 million in cash. Even though this is hypothetical, it has a wider application since TEC is probably going to want to do something similar with whatever winnings it secures from the law suits.
If the endowment or TEC wanted to convert a $200 million property portfolio to cash, I would have thought that will take a considerable time to achieve, and the overheads will be such that the net result won’t be anything like $200 million. Or, they could use the properties as investments to generate income – that again would surely require significant further investment, and not generate income anything like what would be generated by $200 million in liquid funds. After all, this is not really a ‘portfolio’ in an investment sense, just a bunch of properties scattered across the country, most of which have not previously been used to produce investment income.
I’m not purporting to be an expert in investments or anything, I just would have thought that the above are pretty basic principles. But perhaps someone who knows more than me about how these things work in USA can give a better perspective?
MichaelA: You raised a number of valid points. BUT just being able to “manage” $200 million in property is quite an ego trip. Perhaps a real estate firm specializing in church property. Hmmmm Statmann
*LOL* good point!