More On The Spending At St Barnabas Omaha

Since St Barnabas came into the North American ordinariate, there's been an enormous amount of construction activity and property acquisition that I hadn't really spent much time tracking down. In hindsight, it was far out of proportion to the size of the parish.

Just as a start to getting an idea of what had been going on, my regular correspondent sent me this link to a 2017 story (it may require you to answer a quiz question before you can see the text):

In 2013, St. Barnabas made a cash payment to the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska allowing the church to permanently occupy its historic building at 129 N. 40th St. The congregation and the diocese reached the out-of-court settlement after a Douglas County District Court judge ruled that church members must surrender the structure, the rectory and other property to the diocese.

Renovations on the building started in September 2016, with routine repairs to the plaster ceiling, Catania said. In the process, workers discovered more serious problems and opened up the ceiling to the peak of the roof.

“We thought ‘If we’re doing this, what else can we do?’ ” the priest said.

The church ended up with new paint and lights and refinished pews and floors. The sanctuary floor also was lowered nine inches to accommodate the three steps up to the altar that are common in older Catholic churches.

My regular correspondent provided updates on post-2017 spending:

Presumably purchasing its property from the local TEC diocese depleted any endowment the TEC parish had. The new legacy, however, made it possible for the parish to undertake the renovations described [above]. In addition, the rectory was demolished and a landmark house in the neighbourhood was purchased. It sold for $800,000 in 2013 and presumably for more than that when the parish bought it in 2019. Converting it from a nine-bedroom bnb to the uses described in the linked article must have also cost a fair bit.

I believe the parish also purchased two apartment buildings next door to it which now house the St Barnabas Academy and possibly the music director. Fr Catania lived there before the Offutt-Yost mansion was purchased. In 2018 the church bell was refurbished and a new electrical ringing apparatus installed.

You reported on the purchase of the apartment building(s) on June 23, 2017. I see that a new organ had also been installed. Presumably the demolition of the former rectory was related to the long-standing parking problem described here. The lot was poured and painted in April 2019.

The church also purchased a bus to collect Sunday attendees in what I assume is an area poorly served by public transit. It is evident that the $150,000 +/- budgeted for annual givings would not sustain the parish without the addition of substantial income from other sources, and if the recent endowment has been used for these other projects there is no other income.

A parish of this size (I counted about 50-60 people in the pews in a FB picture of Bp Lopes’ visit last Sunday) can’t afford this, certainly not in the space of three or four years.

Whatever the specifics, it appears that the parish's current financial situation is dire. I still have a difficult time envisioning exactly what buildings are in the current complex, exactly how they're used, exactly what the parish's current programs are, and whether any bring in any significant income.

I would be interested to hear any serious plans for how the parish intends to dig itself out of this situation -- the new priest will, it seems to me, have challenges that are greater than would normally be faced by ex-Protestant clergy with often marginal or part-time careers serving small and desultory groups. But if no new leadership of any sort will arrive until July, I wonder if the parish can even last until then, if that's when any serious work will even begin.

UPDATE: A knowledgeable party adds:

Some clarifying info regarding your latest post:

1) The settlement with TEC for the building was paid for with an advance from the bequest before the parish received the full amount (after the parishioner died).

2) The Offutt House was acquired via a house-swap. After tearing down the original rectory, the parish, at the instigation of Bishop Lopes, purchased a house two blocks down the road for use as a rectory. In the meantime, the owner of the Offutt House had been trying, unsuccessfully, to sell it. She approached the parish to see if they were interested in buying it, since it was contiguous with the parish property. At the time, she wanted to sell it with an adjoining house that she also owned, and wanted $1,000,000 for the package. The parish had an independent appraisal done, which found that she was asking for far too much money, and offered her less. She balked and moved on. After several more months of being unable to sell the house, she contacted the parish again and proposed a house-swap. She would take the then-current rectory; St. Barnabas would take the Offutt House. When this was presented to the Parish Council, it was said that the parish would write her a “tax letter” for the $200,000 or so difference in additional worth of the Offutt House over the then-rectory, so she could write it off on her taxes. They were told no money would be exchanged. As it turns out, the parish ended up being on the hook to pay that $200,000, which they are still chipping away at.

3) The bus came with the Offutt House.