Bishop & Council Delays Vote
on Relocation of Diocesan House

by Alice Clayton
Canon to the Ordinary, The Diocese of East Tennessee
At their May 4 meeting, Bishop and Council members decided they needed more information before making a decision to move the Diocesan House from its current location.

The Council reviewed a report on two possible sites prepared by Cope Associates, Inc., an architectural firm that visited two of the three sites proposed during the March 23-24 B&C retreat. The two sites visited were property adjacent to the Church of the Good Samaritan on Cedar Bluff Road and the campus of the Episcopal School of Knoxville on Gilbert Drive near Lovell Road. A third site near St. James Church on Broadway was withdrawn.

Some Council members voiced concern about site preparation at the two remaining sites and requested that more detailed engineering information be provided at the next meeting. Other members expressed the desire for information on leasing space somewhere in the downtown area. The next Council meeting will be June 22 at Church of the Good Samaritan.

In other business, the B&C approved a resolution from the vestry of St. Paul's Church, Chattanooga to convert St. Matthew's Church, Dayton, from a parochial mission of St. Paul's to a diocesan mission. This action relieves St. Paul's from all financial and pastoral obligations to St. Matthew's and transfers the church property in Dayton to the diocese. The vestry of St. Paul's agreed to comment $25,000 per year for three years to the diocese to help ease the financial transition. In a related action, Bishop Charles vonRosenberg accepted an application requesting mission status from the congregation of St. Matthew's, Dayton.

Bishop and Council also approved $50,000 in Opportunity Fund church expansion grants and $22,000 in social ministry grants. Receiving church expansion grants are St. James, Greeneville, $19,000 to paint the church and repair gutters; Thankful Memorial, $31,000 for church repair. Receiving social ministries grants were the Metropolitan Ministry of Chattanooga, $12,000 to create a new position to establish a program to monitor the effectiveness of the ministry's assistance to people in need; Of One Accord, Rogersville, $5,000 for the collection and distribution of food in Hawkins and Hancock Counties and the Kingsport Community Ministry Center, $5,000 for helping indigent people in the Kingsport area obtain food, clothing and shelter.