As I mentioned in a previous post, Cam Miller recently published an excellent piece on church buildings, finances, and the need to hold loosely to the buildings and other artifacts of “Churchianity.” His article appears both on Episcopal Cafe and his personal blog, Subversive Preacher.
My comments in response to his article were nuked on Episcopal Cafe, despite the fact that they are both factual and do not name Grace Church as the subject of my comments. But my comments did appear on Subversive Preacher, where I pointed out that, in essence, Grace Church is throttling itself with its wasteful spending, its focus on maintaining a creaky 1950’s relic of a building, and its rampant clericalism, including its $100,000 bonus in 2014 to Bob Malm.
Below are Cam’s responses, which are spot on. They only point where he gets it wrong is the notion that the diocese would question Bob Malm’s $100,000 bonus. Suffice it to say, unless you are having an affair with a parishioner, Susan Goff and the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, like Pontius Pilate, wash their hands of all clergy misconduct, even Bob Malm’s perjury. And Grace’s vestry actively supports such misconduct.
Here are his comments:
