Affording Grace: Upkeep of building a financial tightrope

The return of the Episcopal parish to Grace Church downtown on Palm Sunday is a joyous occasion for its 500 members.

But the move doesn't come without baggage - namely, the cost of the church itself.

A $2.4 million mortgage remains on the North Tejon Street property. Monthly upkeep is about $25,000.

And in a structure more than 80 years old, unexpected repairs are, well, an expected part of maintenance; in January, the occupying congregation shelled out more than $20,000 for a boiler repair.

"If you're going to have this building, you got to know it will cost you a lot of money," said Donald Armstrong, rector of St. George's Anglican Church, formerly known as Grace Church & St. Stephen's, which has been meeting at the majestic church for two years. "It takes $1.2 million a year to keep the church open," he said.

The annual budget of the returning parish is about $500,000.

"It will be a stretch, but we are confident we can make it," said Martin Pearsall, priest-in-charge of Grace and St. Stephen's Episcopal, which, following a judge's order this week, will return to the Tejon Street church no later than April 3.

Two years ago, the Grace Episcopal parish was exiled from Grace Church.

Most of its members were part of Grace Church & St. Stephen's until March 26, 2007, when Armstrong and his vestry voted to leave the Episcopal Church to join the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, or CANA, presumably because of theological differences with the national body.

While many in the parish agreed with the vestry's decision, hundreds of others remained loyal Episcopalians. The Episcopal parish soon was holding services at First Christian Church downtown, while the CANA parish continued to meet at the Tejon Street property.

The CANA church, which has 1,200 members, filed a lawsuit to determine ownership of the property, and a 41/2-week trial in 4th Judicial District court began Feb. 10, pitting the Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado against the CANA parish.

On Tuesday, a judge found in favor of the diocese and ordered the CANA parish to leave the Tejon Street premises.

Anticipating its return to the grand stone church, the Episcopal congregation has for the past two years contributed to a fund to help pay for Grace's substantial upkeep and its mortgage payments, said Watts, who declined to reveal the amount in the fund except to say it is "substantial."

The congregation hopes to offset the building's financial costs by growing its membership - and therefore donations - and relying on five trusts.

"We are 100-percent confident we will be able to operate the church in a financially sound way," Watts said.

The diocese plans no financial help to the Episcopal parish, said diocese spokeswoman Beckett Stokes. "We've been working with the parish and are confident in the parish growing," she said.

But relying mainly on increased membership to pay for Grace Church's high maintenance costs may be a challenge.

The Episcopal Church has shed hundreds of thousands of members since 2003, when leadership consecrated a gay bishop who was living with his partner, dropping national membership to around 2 million.

Since 2006, two Episcopal churches in Colorado Springs - St. Francis and Holy Spirit - have closed.

By contrast, the conservative Anglican Communion - of which the Episcopal Church is part and sometimes at odds with because of its more liberal theology - has grown worldwide to 77 million members. Over the past two years, three Anglican churches have been planted in Colorado Springs.

Alan R. Crippen II, a priest at St. George's, is skeptical that the Episcopal parish's reliance on membership growth is a viable plan to offset the financial cost of Grace Church.

"It is a business plan I am not convinced of," Crippen said. "It is a really hard sell."

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