One of the recurring themes in my experiences with Grace Episcopal, aka St. Dysfunction, is lack of accountability. Lack of accountability by Bob Malm, by the vestry, by parish “leaders,” by Jeff “Sugarland” Chiow, and more. As I’ve said many times, where but church can a key employee, Bob Malm:
- Lie to vestry members about important HR issues (“don’t worry about it, they’ll be retiring this year,”)
- Lie in court
- Fail to adhere to basic organizational policies (like the canonical requirement that the vestry elect its officers)
- Lose track of thousands of dollars in funds (like those found in the parish administrator’s office)
- Generate facially inaccurate financial reports
- Deliberately misuse funds (like our memorial donations)
And still keep their job? And get a $100k bonus on top of that?
I was happy to see that my sentiments about churches generally were recently echoed by my friend Dee Parsons, who tweeted this: