Disciple: In the Hands of Our Churches

Diocese announces plans for funds from sale of 200 West Morgan Street

Since the sale of Diocesan House at 200 West Morgan Street in September 2023, Bishop Sam Rodman and Bishop Jennifer Brooke-Davidson formed and have been working with a diocesan-wide task force to discern the appropriate use of the $8.8 million net proceeds from the sale, currently held in an interest-bearing account. Together, with approval from our governing bodies, Diocesan Council, Standing Committee and Trustees, the task force decided these funds will be used to support two areas: $3.8 million to cover the lease and ongoing support of the new diocesan offices, and $5 million to support new and existing projects and ministries relating to diocesan mission strategy priorities through grants, matching funds, seeding of projects and revolving loans.

“The work of our mission strategy and our journey to Becoming Beloved Community has always been about, first and foremost, the work happening in our churches and diocesan ministries,” said Rodman. “As possibilities for the proceeds from the sale of Diocesan House were discussed, conversation returned again and again to the work happening within our churches.”

The disbursement will be offered in three phases of approximately six months each. In the first phase, $3 million dollars will be designated specifically for historically Black and Latino congregations, as well as churches with an annual operating budget of less than $100,000. All of these churches were contacted directly by members of the diocesan congregational vitality team and invited to submit proposals and requests for funding.

The second phase will designate $1 million dollars. Any church may apply for these funds, provided the proposed use is to fund works or projects done in collaboration, whether the partnerships are with Phase I-eligible churches, other Episcopal churches, community partners or other organizations. The only criteria specific to this phase is that the applying church be a church of the Diocese of North Carolina and a partner in the proposed mission strategy related work.

The third phase will offer the last $1 million with no applicant restrictions.

WHY THIS APPROACH

The decision to offer funds first to churches that include historically Black and Latino congregations was an intentional one. This is one way of living into the biblical principle that Jesus taught: “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.” Everyone is encouraged to read “Initial Report: The Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina’s History of Institutional Racism (Founding through 1960)” by the Rev. Dr. Rhonda M. Lee to understand why it was decided to take this approach. As the report makes clear, the funds and resources we have available today are directly traced to historical actions by and within our diocese.

THE PROCESS

Applications and proposals for this funding may be submitted from May 1 through June 30, 2024. The application submission and review process will be overseen by the Mission Proceeds Discernment Task Force. They will receive and review the requests and proposals and, after reviewing them and requesting any needed additional information, will make recommendations to Diocesan Council for their consideration. Diocesan Council will then make the final decision and oversee the disbursement of funds.

What the proposals might contain is entirely up to those applying during each of the three phases. The only starting criteria the proposals must meet to be considered:

• The project or need must relate to one of the five diocesan mission strategy priorities.
• The project must be based within the Diocese of North Carolina.

“Our hope is that by offering funding from the sale of Diocesan House in this way, two things may happen,” said Rodman. “First, we will make a right beginning as we address and continue to reckon with our racial history. Second, we hope congregations, whether alone or in partnership, will have the space to dream and discern and then realize those dreams. The goal of this process is to provide congregations and ministries with the resources and the tools they need, and the chance to build relationships, to create opportunities for ministries and partnerships that can make a difference in their communities. In keeping with the original hopes of the sale of the building, we encourage congregations to consider projects and partnerships that address the need for affordable housing.”

Phase I began May 1. Applications may be submitted through July 15, and funds are expected to be granted and disbursed before the 209th Annual Convention in November. Phase II may open as early as late 2024 or early 2025, with Phase III beginning once Phase II is completed.

Learn more about the disbursement process.

HISTORY, LAND, RACISM AND THE SALE OF 200 WEST MORGAN STREET

As laid out in detail in “Initial Report: The Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina’s History of Institutional Racism (Founding-1960s)” by the Rev. Dr. Rhonda Lee, land, racism, white supremacy and the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina have been intertwined since the beginning. Even before the establishment of the diocese in 1817, Anglicans played a significant role in the colonization of what is now called North Carolina. Anglicans had a part in the theft of land from Indigenous people and the usurpation of their sovereignty. Our first bishop, John Stark Ravenscroft, was a slaveowner, as were a number of other North Carolina Episcopalians. Some of the funds used to establish white Episcopal churches throughout the diocese came from profits earned on land stolen from Indigenous people using the forced labor of enslaved people. Those profits and that wealth have accrued through generations in white churches in ways denied to black churches.

That is true throughout the diocese in general. It also true for the land allocated to our diocesan offices in particular.

As Lee notes in her report, “The largest plantation in North Carolina, and one of the largest in the United States, was Stagville. Together with the various smaller plantations associated with it, Stagville eventually stretched across 30,000 acres—almost 50 square miles—in what was then Orange County. Before being appropriated by Europeans, archaeological evidence shows that this land was in use by Indigenous people for at least 4,000 years. At Stagville, the Bennehan-Cameron family held almost 1,000 people in slavery in 1865; over the previous two centuries, they had enslaved generations more. The family were prominent Episcopalians” (page 7).

Duncan Cameron was a member of the Bennehan-Cameron family and owned Stagville Plantation for much of the first half of the 19th century. Cameron was instrumental in the founding of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina and was an active churchman, serving as a lay delegate to Diocesan Convention and a deputy to General Convention. He also proved to be essential to the diocese’s economic well-being.

Again, according to Lee’s report, “In 1841, Duncan Cameron rescued the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina from financial disaster. Over the previous few years, the diocese had borrowed to buy land and pay other expenses associated with establishing a boys’ school. When the school closed after only a brief period of operation, the diocese owed a total of almost $22,000 to the family from whom it had bought the land, and to the Episcopal Fund which paid the bishop’s salary, and from which the diocese had borrowed. Duncan Cameron stepped in to pay the entire debt, making the diocese solvent once more, and then offered the school buildings and land for the establishment of Saint Mary’s School for girls. Saint Mary’s remained an all-white institution until 1971, when a student from Ethiopia attended. The first African American student attended from 1974 through 1976; the first African American student to graduate from Saint Mary’s High School did so in 1981” (page 8).

Prior to its location in downtown Raleigh, the Diocese of North Carolina was located on St. Alban’s Road in the North Hills area. The sale of the property at St. Alban’s Road allowed the diocese to purchase the property at 200 West Morgan Street in downtown Raleigh in 2005. The downtown property was sold in 2023, generating a profit of $5.78 million. That profit in 2023 was made possible in no small part by Duncan Cameron’s investment in 1841. The money generated by the sale of the diocesan office building at 200 West Morgan Street is inextricably linked to money generated from the forced labor of enslaved people working stolen land.

No single profit sharing is sufficient to the cause of making reparation for the wrongs done to enslaved people and their descendants in the Diocese of North Carolina, nor can that amount compensate for the inequity perpetuated across generations. But the process by which the money from the sale of 200 West Morgan Street is allocated, and recognizing the authority of the people descended from those from whom the wealth was derived and who were directly impacted by ongoing systemic racism, in designing that process and making those allocations, might be a right beginning.

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