The Bishop's Voice
THE MEANING OF A DIOCESE AND A DIOCESAN CENTER

by John S. Spong, Bishop of Newark

The ultimate religious loyalty that people develop is directed primarily toward the congregation where their Christian lives are nurtured. Only a very few, during the course of a lifetime, develop a love and appreciation for the structures of diocesan and national church life.

Most of us live our lives locally, not on diocesan or national levels. Yet congregations are deeply affected, both for good and for ill by both diocesan and national church structures.

The role of a diocese is to set a vision for its congregations, and to pose issues with which people must grapple and then to empower them by lifting them out of their narrow, local concerns and into the larger world view. It is also the task of a diocese to equip its people for life by raising their consciousness and by enhancing opportunities for their growth. That goal is accomplished in a variety of ways: through the visitation of the bishops, who are called by their office into national and international concerns; through the work of the Diocesan Council, the Standing Committee; and the Diocesan Convention; and through the variety of guests who come into the diocese in the course of a year. It is done through continuing education opportunities like New Dimensions, the Hines Lectures and the Diocesan Lectures in the fall and during Lent. It is achieved through the diocesan publication, The VOICE, through the camp, the Companion Diocese relationship, The Oasis, Episcopal Community Development and through our various commissions and committees. In this diocese, the cutting edge of corporate life has been our special task forces created to address issues of national and international concern, including such things as human sexuality, Christian identity in a modern world, the proper use of the Bible, the environment, children's issues, the concerns of the elderly, assisted suicide and prayer book revision. The first hint of a diocese's success in these endeavors comes when the people in the pews begin just to be conscious of their congregation's membership in the diocese. The ultimate goal of these endeavors, however, is for those same people to see the diocese as the occasion for their own church development and finally to be proud of their membership in such a body.

Only time will finally tell whether this diocese has lived out its vocation adequately, or fulfilled its mission and opportunity competently, but it is important that we know that we have that capability and that capacity. We can, however, be certain that we have been clear in our witness and for that witness we are known the world over.

To enable us to fulfill our possibility for ministry and mission is the only reason I can imagine that will justify the request we are making of the people of this Diocese to support the creation of a new diocesan headquarters.

We have had a center at 24 Rector Street in Newark, and it has served us well since 1940, but its days of usefulness came to an end with the erection of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Placing this cultural center in the heart of Newark will be part of Newark's rise to greatness in the future. As its neighbor, our Episcopal Cathedral of Trinity and St. Philip will undoubtedly benefit from that association.

However, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center has also brought great disruption to our diocesan headquarters. First they took over our parking lot. An office building in downtown Newark without parking quickly becomes dysfunctional. Secondly, the building of the seven-story tall Arts Center in that parking lot has effectively removed the sunlight from the back of our building. Thirdly, the increased traffic will make Rector Street all but impassable and meetings or appointments in that building, to say nothing of accommodating our faithful staff, is increasingly difficult. These are the realities that combined to force us to look at relocating.

Our commitment was and is to stay in Newark. Having identified deeply with this city in its most troubled times, we want to identify with it in its renaissance. The New Jersey Performing Arts Center recognized the impact that their building program has had and joined in our search for relocation sites by offering us property at 31 Mulberry Street, as well as a cash settlement of $425,000 in exchange for our building. It is clearly the best alternative for the diocese.

But that is not all that we have to face. The building at 31 Mulberry Street must be refitted to meet new occupancy requirements which include a second stairway and handicapped accessibility on all floors. The major systems of heating, air conditioning, security, telephone, computer capacity and hookups, as well as the interior space, must be redesigned for a diocesan headquarters for the 21st century. The total cost of this renovation project, we found, will be $1,600,000, including moving and furnishings. I am happy to tell you that we have in hand about half of that total, or $800,000. It is made up of $425,000 from the Arts Center, plus money received when the Arts Center took over our parking lot, an unrestricted gift to the diocese, the endowment of the closed church in Essex County, and every other identifiable, uncommitted source. We are thus left with a balance of $800,000 to be raised. When this task is complete, however, we will have a diocesan center to be proud of that will function well, and will be a growing and valuable asset. The day we move in, that new building will be worth much more than we have invested in it.

I think it is important to note that, had we stayed in our present building, we would still have faced the necessity for major renovations costing at least $2,000,000. So this move represents a quality decision, reflecting both savings and good stewardship of our resources.

Can we raise this $800,000? Well, first we need to recognize that if we do not, the debt service we will have to carry will drastically limit the financial flexibility of the diocese for about twenty years. That will place additional burdens on our churches, our diocesan budget, and our trustees. Secondly, if we could raise more than the required $800,000, we could create an endowment for the maintenance of that building to remove the burden of that support from our congregations and free even more of our resources for ministry.

Thirdly, we hope to raise this money so that the Diocese will not compete with our churches for the same resources. There will be no capital fund drive with shares assigned to our congregations.

We also have a major positive agenda driving this campaign. We want to enhance the sense of ownership of this diocesan building among the people of the Diocese. We want this building to celebrate the history and store the memories of our people. We want to erect a building that will recall our struggles and honor our heroes. That is the reason that we have established memorial opportunities allowing people to donate sums between $10,000 and $800,000 to name a room or a floor, or the building itself, in memory of someone whose contribution has enriched our life significantly. Already space has been set aside to remember Malcolm Talbot, a lay leader from Grace Church,Newark, who died a decade ago.

To enhance this goal of storing our memories, let me suggest some other possibilities. When a diocese has leaders like Ward Herbert who served as Chancellor of the diocese for almost a quarter of a century, or beloved rectors who have served their parishes and this Diocese with distinction, and so many others, both lay and clergy, who have and are making significant contributions to our diocesan life, we need to provide a way to keep their memories alive for the next generation. So perhaps the congregations where such leaders worship might achieve this goal by endowing a room in the diocesan headquarters, which will bear their names and in which their portraits will hang. Fifty years from now some youngster, seeing that portrait or hearing that name, will inquire as to who that person was or is and an old- timer will have the opportunity to reminisce about the contribution that person made in an earlier day. In this way the history of the diocese will be passed to another generation and the diocesan center will be the storer of the memories of this wonderful portion of the Body of Christ.

We plan one additional place where the clergy and lay heroes of our diocesan faith story may be honored. On the first floor of this building the new All Saints' Chapel will be built. In that chapel, we will place a memorial wall on which a contribution of $1,000 from 100 people will entitle them to place the name of their choice on a memorial plaque. This will be for the foot soldiers of the diocese, a galaxy of leaders who have made a difference in our corporate life. This wall will give All Saints' Chapel the flavor of one hundred diocesan saints and every time the people in Diocesan House gather for worship, they will do so surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses. The first plaque on that wall will bear the name of George Christie, a former member of Christ Church, Ridgewood, and a longtime leader in this diocese before his death.

We want to incorporate the past life of this diocese into this building and yet also make it serve this diocese for at least the next century and beyond.

Finally, let me try to help you imagine this building a year from now. It is a narrow, tall, almost tubular building, containing a basement and six floors. The first floor will house a reception area, the Chapel, the Bishop Anand Center and the Diocesan Book Store. The second floor will be public meeting space, capable of housing a gathering of the clergy, the Episcopal Church Women, or other large diocesan groups. The third, fourth and fifth floors will house the diocesan offices with the bishops, the diocesan administrator and their secretaries on the fourth floor. All other offices will be divided between the third and the fifth. The sixth floor is a solarium where we will create a lunch room for our dedicated staff and space for smaller groups to meet, with coffee and cold drinks available. We will also own more than thirty parking spaces and we will have access to more on days that they are needed. By agreement with the Arts Center, this parking area will be maintained for us, including snow removal.

That is our story. I hope you will want to share in it. We are soliciting pledges over a three-year period to pay off this indebtedness. I want you to know that Chris and I made the first pledge of $10,000 because I do not believe I can ask you to commit to something we are not ourselves willing to support. As of this date we have pledges over $175,000. We hope those who read this will want to share in this project. A pledge coupon is included in this issue of The VOICE.

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