News release from The Episcopal Church Center:
The Episcopal Church
Office of Public Affairs
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
An agreement has been completed between the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (DFMS) and Lyceum Kennedy French American School to lease the Second Floor at the Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Avenue in New York City.
Currently located at 225 E 43rd St in New York City, this lease provides an expansion of space for the school. Bishop Stacy Sauls, Episcopal Church Chief Operating Officer, explained that the second floor was specifically requested by Lyceum because it has a private entrance/exit, ideal for school purposes.
Lyceum is expected to move into its new quarters in the summer.
The arrangement with Lyceum Schools will provide nearly $380,000 of new revenue in the first 12 months. This lease is coterminous with other leases in the Church Center.
As stated previously, Bishop Sauls stressed that the Second Floor lease does not impact the current conversation on the future location of the Church Center.
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Torey,
I agree. Particularly amusing is the whole, “We need time to make a reasoned decision,” line of reasoning. Under the canons, GC has ultimate authority and that vote has already occurred. Thus, if what folks are saying is that the vote was premature, that is a different issue, but at this point, the vote stands. The only “conversation” to be had is about timing and implementation.
The folks at 815 also should be very careful before deciding to ignore the vote at GC. At the end of the day, the church is a representative democracy, and if the hierarchy is prepared to ignore concerns about the cost of 815 and continue pouring money into this outdated throughback to the days of big corporate headquarters, then they can find the money to support it. If the property is not sold per the resolution at the last GC, I for one would favor a budget that zeros out all expenses associated with the building.
If, on the other hand, the hierarchy believes that the vote to sell indeed was premature, then I want to have a meaningful discussion about what went wrong, lessons learned, and next steps, including a plan for meaningful input by stakeholders (which was, I thought, the whole purpose of GC and its various committtees).
I do not want a repeat of the thoroughly lame “report” that came out of 815 a few months ago about why we should keep the building, replete with discussions about the cost of airline tickets and various references to “Mad Men” era business practices.
Time for WebEx, folks.
Eric Bonetti
The tone of the recent report of the executive group at 815 on the relocation of the Church Center was most alarming to me. Its subtext was “We know what General Convention thought it was doing but we know better.” So I am taking the line from this release that this lease “does not impact the current conversation on the future location of the Church Center” with a grain of salt. Actually, with a block of salt.
Torey Lightcap