TRINITY EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Galveston, Texas
Founded 1841
The Gothic Church Building Completed in 1857
Recently the enormously wealthy Moody Foundation of Galveston, Texas chose to award a grant of $2.7 million to Trinity Episcopal Church’s parochial school rather than to the church itself.
It came with great thought as to how the church and the school could best be helped to grow. I wrote this piece for the Galveston paper.
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What Moody Foundations Grant to Trinity Really Means
A number of years ago, Houston’s St. Thomas Episcopal Church’s membership was diminishing. Many worried that at that rate, the parish could soon cease to exist.
My longtime friend, Robert Bennett, CPA and CLU, was a vestryman at the church. He was asked to come up with a plan that would likely save it from possible extinction, but would also significantly rebuild the membership.
Bennett’s advice? Funnel most of the parish’s resources – financial and mental – toward building the church’s parochial school. His corollary? Churches without schools are difficult to sustain, much less to grow.
Today, St. Thomas’ Episcopal School has all 12 grades. And its huge boys’ drum and bagpipe band, kilts and all, have brought it national acclaim.
Many have applied for enrollment in the school with the hopes they could try out for membership in the drum and bagpipe band.
With the growth of the school has come the growth of the church’s membership. Today, St. Thomas is a true feather in the miter of the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Houston.
Galveston’s Trinity Episcopal Church, for various reasons, has been limping along with
declining membership for a number of years, even though since 1952 it has had under its wings founder Fr. John Caskey’s academically acclaimed Trinity Episcopal School.
The Rev. John F. Caskey ===>>
Like many of the old downtown Galveston churches experienced, Hurricane Ike did its best to sound Trinity’s death knoll.
All of the churches were left gasping for air, trying to figure out how to rebuild their buildings and save their memberships.
The Moody Foundation trustees’ extraordinary business judgment concluded the same solution for Trinity as Robert Bennett had advised for St. Thomas almost 30 years before.
Rather than devote a grant to Trinity Church, instead the foundation gave $2.7 million to Trinity School to build an activities center and gymnasium.
This huge injection of parochial oxygen guarantees the growth and validation of Trinity School, and that will give reason for the church to be able to rebuild its membership and continue ministering in Galveston to the glory of God.
Blessings to Robert and Ann Moody for whom the facility will be named. And blessings to the trustees of the Moody Foundation for exercising their wisdom. All of Galveston should be thankful.
BILL CHERRY, REAL ESTATE BROKER
Dallas – Park Cities
Since 1964
214 503-8563
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