The San Antonio Fundraiser: More Questions Than Answers

A couple of visitors have been digging into what can be learned about the $4 million project Our Lady of the Atonement has advertised on a sign at its site. My initial curiosity was piqued by the apparent lack of specificity in the proposal, but the visitors have raised questions beyond that. My regular correspondent, for instance, went through years of posts at Fr Phillips's blog and has found references to what seems pretty clearly to be this same proposal. From a post on November 14, 2014:

Our recognition has put a strain on our existing classrooms. At 570 students this academic year, (almost identical to our enrollment in the last three years), The Atonement Academy is at capacity in the current building, so the need to expand our classrooms is a necessary one, which we are doing! After years of planning, we are excited that construction has begun on our 117,000 sq. ft. expansion. This time last year, we were making earnest preparations for “Phase 1 and 2” of the expansion plan, which involved the construction of 19 new classrooms and four science labs, plus a dining hall, two practice gymnasiums, more offices and site preparations which include additional parking.

But this appears to be a 2014 update to an earlier plan from 2010:

We’ve revised our site plan and goal since the short 2010 Capital Campaign, making the design more cost-effective without sacrificing the needed classroom space. Because of your generosity, we have continued to revise our plans and have elected to build the entire complex, including the auditorium shell, though it will not be finished-out when construction is completed.

I'm not sure if the school publishes current enrollment numbers, but not long ago, a visitor familiar with the school went over past issues of its house organ and via photos and references determined that the program is operating at a much lower level than that described by Fr Phillips in 2014, for instance, dropping separate classes for boys and girls. So a worthwhile first question for Fr Lewis would be why he appears to be simply continuing a plan developed in the Phillips-Orr period, when enrollment and projected facility use were quite a bit higher.

Another visitor raises another very good set of questions:

It has been my experience in the past that when a parish wants to expand, make improvements or renovate, they first make application to the diocese. If the project meets with the Bishop's approval usually the parish has to come up with half of the money. Then the Bishop or the diocese will apply to a commercial bank for the additional funding for the project. So my question here is whether OLOTA is trying to raise four million dollars in this fundraiser or are they trying to raise eight million dollars? I do agree with your assessment that for a project this large four million seems unrealistically low.

Continuing along this thread, the next question is whether Bishop Lopes and company have the ability to secure the additional funding to complete the project. Next, most are aware of the murky waters surrounding the present mortgage on OLOTA. When the parish left the diocese and joined the ordinariate there was a very considerable balance left on the mortgage that the diocese was holding on the parish in the many millions of dollars. We are told in the OLOTA financial statement that the monthly payment on this mortgage is in the neighborhood of $58,000.00 a month.

If the present undertaking is to be realized, how much more would the total mortgage payment be? How could financing be arranged with the San Antonio diocese holding the mortgage on the parish and the ordinariate being responsible for the parish to pay this [additional] mortgage? The real question here is could any parish anywhere the size of OLOTA even afford to do this? How much money would the church and school have to generate to stay afloat?

These are the sorts of question that a functioning Episcopalian vestry made up of professional people like lawyers, bankers, and accountants would have hashed out -- and indeed, between them and the rector, they would have had a good idea of who could be hit for the money. It doesn't appear that in the case of OLA, there's a parish council or finance council of the same caliber, and this ought to be troubling.

Theoretically, if the parish council doesn't ask enough of these questions, they should at least be put to Fr Lewis in a general parish meeting. I have no indication any such thing has taken place -- can someone bring me up to date if it has? And if it took place, what were Fr Lewis's answers?

We're called to be good stewards. That means making effective use of our donations. I would not pledge a penny to this campaign without serious answers to these questions:

• Is this campaign just a renewal of ten-year-old plans that are out of date, given current enrollment and parish membership? Is the expansion projected in 2010-14 justified now?
• What part of this project does $4 million cover? Is this just the parish's portion of a larger amount that will be financed via Houston? If so, how does Houston intend to finance this?
• An additional mortgage payment will be beyond the parish's current income. What serious plan does Fr Lewis have to grow parish membership and school enrollment to the extent needed to cover the increased payment?
• If the $4 million to be raised by the parish is the full cost of the project, a much more detailed breakdown of project features and costs will be needed, as the projection seems unrealistic as shown.

It's hard to avoid thinking this project is at best premature, and the parish should expect to see results from Fr Lewis's leadership that give credibility to this proposal. Every account, though, is that Fr Phillips grew the parish to the extent it grew as part of a con job with smoke and mirrors. Fr Lewis doesn't appear to be even at Fr Phillips's level here.