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[Update 21 Nov 2007]
Correction by The Rev. William A. Greenlaw Rector, Church of the Holy Apostles Executive Director, Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen:
There were several unfortunate and very misleading errors of fact in the recent article in The Living Church, “Soup Kitchen Bowls Over Parish,” November 25, 2007 (print version):
1. The soup kitchen’s annual operating budget is $2.6 million. The soup kitchen does not “contribute” $2.6 million to parish income, as claimed by the article: rather the soup kitchen contributes $130,000 allocated by our auditors to various non-religious shared expenses and $71,000 depreciation to the building fund to offset the wear and tear on the physical plant. These facilities costs are small considering that this is for several thousand squarefeet of handicapped accessible ground floor space in Midtown Manhattan.
2. The church suffered a very serious fire in 1990. In substantial part, because of the church’s reputation in sponsoring the soup kitchen, a large number of people and institutions contributed to the restoration of our landmark building. That restoration was completed in 1994 and the nave of the church, now a flexible usespace, was able to double as the main dining room of the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen.
3. The person who envisioned and established Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen was the Rev. Randolph Lloyd Frew, rector from 1978-84, not the Rev. Paul Coleman Cochran, priest in charge from 1975-77.
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ORIGINAL POST
This is one of those man bites dog stories:
“We owe our existence as a parish to the Soup Kitchen,” said the Rev. William A. Greenlaw, rector. “It has put us on the map. Many who are now vestry members began as Soup Kitchen volunteers.”
Thirty years ago, the congregation and the facility were both worn out. Fr. Greenlaw said his predecessor, the Rev. Paul Cochran, was sent to Holy Apostles’ to preside over its closure. Instead, Fr. Cochran decided to launch the Soup Kitchen. Holy Apostles’, which reports average Sunday attendance of about 120, recently completed a $7-million renovation. Some individuals who contributed did so because of the Soup Kitchen.
In addition to drawing traffic to the parish, the Soup Kitchen also contributes to net parish income.
To the annual tune of $2.6 million net.
Read it all here in The Living Church.