I note in the latest newsletter from St Luke's, Washington both another statement of their need to build or purchase their own church, and a note that they ran a $30,000 deficit last year, on pledges of $102,430. Math is not my strong suit but this does not look like the strongest position from which to enter the D.C. real estate market, which I assume is fairly pricey.From this, it appears that they're renting their space, and they seem to have a total budget of something like $130,000 on an income of $100,000. This is an indication that once you leave the very top tier of OCSP parishes, you quickly wind up in problematic financial territory -- I have a feeling that neither Scranton nor Bridgeport is much better off. That said, without a breakdown of where St Luke's money is going, it's hard to say much more, except that clergy apparently is non-stipendiary at St Luke's. (My regular correspondent says, "St Luke's is a full parish, which usually involves a paid priest, although perhaps not at full diocesan scale. Fr Lewis is also the Eastern Dean of the OCSP. He was a TEC clergyman until 2011 so has perhaps some current or deferred pension income.") If anyone can clarify some of these issues, I'll greatly appreciate it.
I went back and checked the financial information I had from St Mary of the Angels in 2011. What they paid for cathedraticum, utilities, insurance, church supplies, trash collection, cleaning, and a range of expenses like printing the bulletin came to about $65,000 a year. This leaves out salaries and payroll taxes, and in a mild climate, it leaves out heavy heating and snow removal. If St Luke's moves to its own building, it will have something in the high five figures to pay even before it gets a mortgage. And this assumes clergy, organist/music director, choir, and the like work for free. And organs, sorry to say, break down frequently.
I don't know what anyone's sniffin' here besides incense -- we have a situation where there is no apparent interest in forming additional OCSP groups or parishes, while the financial situation of nearly all existing ones is precarious. The expenses of operating a church in an adult world are significant, and even the upper-middle tier entities like St Luke's seem not quite able to meet them -- and if they grow beyond that size and actually need to pay people, it'll never happen.
