THE PRESENCE OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN UTAH started in October 1866 when the House of Bishops, meeting in New York City, elected Daniel S. Tuttle as the missionary bishop of the territories of Montana and Idaho and Utah.

To begin his episcopacy, Tuttle enlisted four clergyman friends to help bring the Episcopal Church to this vast area. He also began a correspondence with Warren Hussey, a prominent non-Mormon banker in Salt Lake City, who encouraged him to come to Utah. Hussey assured Tuttle that he would have few problems with the Mormon Church if he came in as "a man willing to work for his cause and build a church on its merits and not expect to tear down an opposing cause to build on."1 With this assurance, Tuttle sent the Rev. George Foote and seminarian Thomas Haskins ahead to Salt Lake City to pave the way for his arrival after consecration as bishop. Foote and Haskins began holding services in Independence Hall and two months later founded St. Mark's School in Salt Lake City. Both Haskins and Tuttle firmly believed that the most efficient way to missionary work was through the schools.

Six churches were established during Tuttle’s episcopacy, four of which remain to this day: St. Mark’s and St. Paul’s in Salt Lake City, Good Shepherd in Ogden, and St. John’s in Logan. Central to the growing number of Episcopal churches was St. Mark’s Cathedral in Salt Lake City. Consecrated in 1874, the cathedral was the first non-LDS church structure of any permanence in the city.

Perhaps Bishop Tuttle’s most significant accomplishment, at least from in the eyes of the community, was the establishment of St. Mark’s Hospital in 1872. With the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, and with readily available transportation, mining and other industries grew and thrived in the Salt Lake area. Along with the industry and its workers came the injuries and illnesses, yet there was no place within several days ride to treat them. The hospital began in a small adobe building. It was funded by dues from the miners and continually grew; nearly 5,000 patients had been treated by the time Bishop Tuttle left. The hospital has been a major medical center and focal point of the Episcopal Church in Utah ever since.

In 1886, Tuttle was called to be the bishop of Missouri and left Utah. He later became presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church.

In 1888, the mission district was re-aligned to become the Missionary District of Nevada, Utah, and Western Colorado under Bishop Abiel Leonard. By the turn of the century, there were 12 Episcopal parishes in Utah but only four had full-time clergy. There were just over 900 communicants in Utah, most of them in Salt Lake City and Ogden. Leonard had plenty to do, as well, in Nevada, Wyoming, and Colorado where there were another 17 parishes. Bishop Leonard’s building efforts encompassed two new areas: a school of nursing and missions to the Native American Ute people. Both have had a lasting impact. In 1894 the two-year nursing program was established in connection with the newly built and then expanded hospital. The program has remained and evolved over the years and is now a formal school within Westminster College in Salt Lake City. Establishing and maintaining missions in the Ute Indian Reservation in the Uintah Basin proved more difficult because of complicated, often corrupt, policies and procedures. But eventually schools, nursing stations, and churches were established in Randlett (1895) and White Rocks (1899). The Church of The Holy Spirit and St. Elizabeth’s are active missions even today, joined by the parish church in nearby Vernal, which began life in 1900 in the local opera house.

This period of church planting slowed considerably after the turn of the century – the only new church was a bold expansion into the city of Provo, home to Brigham Young University since 1876. St. Mary’s parish has managed to survive and grow in that most heavily Mormon area ever since. It was founded the same year that the Missionary District of Utah was formed and the responsibilities for churches in other states transferred to other districts. While there were a lot of other activities occupying Utah’s bishops before and during World War I, it was not until 1927 that new churches were established. Recognizing the need to reach out to the miners in central Utah, missions were established in Carbon County. Eventually those two churches would be combined into the parish of St. Matthew’s in Price, which is today a combined congregation of the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and members from other faiths.

The Depression and World War II led to another period of little growth. As all across the world, it was a time of restricted resources and attention focused outside one’s self. There were approximately 1,600 communicants in the mission district consistently throughout the period, and much of the attention of the bishop was directed toward finding funding for the Episcopal Church in Utah. Interest in the "Wild West" had waned and missionary concerns were focused overseas. With the financial problems came difficulty in attracting and retaining qualified, energetic clergy. A sort of lethargy seemed to settle over the area. In many of the churches, services were conducted by lay readers and only infrequently visited by clergy.

A Time of Growth

With the revitalization of the economy and society in general after the end of World War II, things started looking up. The state experienced a large influx of new residents thanks to work available through the federal government. While some mining industries experienced a significant downturn due to reduced needs previously directed to the war, other areas of manufacturing and services industry began to grow. Salt Lake City and its surrounding communities experienced rapid growth and new opportunities for ministry.

Coincidentally, a new bishop arrived in Utah in the person of Stephen Clark. His was a disciplined process that led to a 10-year building and expansion effort. Central to that was his belief that "Utah’s future population growth would be concentrated in a 50-mile zone radiating from Salt Lake City, framed by the Wasatch Mountains and the Salt Lake desert. Purely rural areas would not be productive for church work; most were strongly LDS and defectors who tried to join the Episcopal Church faced ostracism and economic ruin."2 Some of the smaller churches in remote areas had few congregants and some were closed while others were consolidated in nearby, more populated areas. Meanwhile, St. Mark’s Hospital continued to expand and modernize, and the Rowland Hall and St. Mark’s schools began to grow after being stagnant for a long period.

As can be imagined, not everyone was happy with the direction in which the bishop was headed and his untimely death by stroke brought a hiatus to the 10-year plan. It was more than two years before a new bishop was in place in Utah. Richard Watson came to Utah with the enthusiasm and administrative skills to realize the intent of his predecessor’s building plan. The first new church built, however, was much farther than 50 miles from Salt Lake City. Moab is located in an area that is as remote as any in Utah, but in 1954 a group of six families was determined to have an Episcopal Church there and started one in their homes. The area is rich in uranium deposits and Moab boomed when that ore was heavily mined in the 1960s. A parish building was erected in 1963. The decline of mining led to depression in the town, but it is located adjacent to Arches National Monument in some of the most beautiful terrain in the state and today is a tourist magnet.

About this same time building began in earnest closer to the Wasatch Front population center. Some funding and a lot of volunteer work brought Camp Tuttle, a rustic plot in the mountains above Salt Lake City, into use as a day camp and retreat. All Saints parish was built near the University of Utah in 1955; St. Michael’s (1957) was begun in Brigham City, to the North of Salt Lake; St. Peter’s started in Clearfield, midway between Salt Lake and Brigham City in 1958; The Church of the Resurrection (1961) had its beginnings in nearby Bountiful; St. Stephen’s found a home in West Valley City in 1962; St. James’, Midvale, and St. Barnabas, Tooele, began in 1963; and services started in St. George, Utah, for what was to become Grace Church in 1966. A full decade later St. Jude’s began in Cedar City. Not all of these churches started with large, beautiful sanctuaries – many of them had their start in a small public meeting place or someone’s home – but each was begun with a firm conviction of the need for an Episcopal presence in their community and each has a wonderful place of worship today. By 1970 the Diocese of Utah experienced such rapid expansion across the state that it brought problems in finding attendant clergy and means of financial support, but it also brought attention from the national church. The next bishop to serve in the state would be the first bishop of the [independent] Diocese of Utah.

An Independent Diocese

E. Otis Charles was the first bishop of Utah elected by the diocese. He served from 1971 to 1986 and is currently the elder statesman of the House of Bishops. He was followed by Bishops George Bates (1986-1996) and Carolyn Tanner Irish (1996 to present). Each of these episcopacies had distinctive features, trials, successes, and unique narratives. All of them have some things in common, not only with each other but with the history of the Episcopal Church in Utah. Each has helped to mold the diocese into what it is today and to form the foundation for what it will be in the future. It is important to look at a few of the ministries and tenets central to the life of the diocese in preparing the call of the next bishop of Utah.

Education

From the very start, education has played an important part of the mission in Utah. Bishop Tuttle’s strategy for growth of the Episcopal Church in his district was focused on education. His rationale was sound and fairly simple: provide an alternative to the limited schooling already available. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), led by Brigham Young, was fully established and thriving in Utah. However, Young’s philosophy of education for school age youth limited the curricula to "basic literacy, to which was added animal husbandry, commerce, and bookkeeping."1 For more than 30 years after Mormons arrived in 1847, Utah would be without public schools. And even after they were founded, they were slow to grow and lagged far behind eastern schools in the caliber of their curricula.

Over the 20th century, however, the public school system improved, and there was less reliance on other systems. By the late 1900s most of the Episcopal schools, along with those of other denominations, had died out. Rowland Hall-St. Mark’s experienced significant growth during the late ’70s but soon became independent of the diocese (though an Episcopal priest is still in residence there). Today two parishes (St. Paul’s, Salt Lake, and St. James, Midvale) house preschools, though another is planned to open in 2010 at Good Shepherd in Ogden. Ministries and chaplaincies at Utah’s universities have waxed and waned, as much due to student interest (or lack thereof) as to efforts on behalf of the diocese. So on the surface it may appear that interest in education has died out, but in reality it has merely changed form.

Bishop Charles, facing significant budgetary problems, brought to life in Utah a program for the local training and ordination of clergy. While slow to develop and structure itself, the program was met with enthusiasm by most of the members of the diocese. It slowed under Bishop Bates when, after the sale of St. Mark’s Hospital provided the diocese with ample resources, he declared his intent to place seminary-trained clergy in every mission and parish. Charles’ vision was revived under Bishop Irish – not that there was prejudice against seminary-trained clergy, but because of the interest in education and eventual ordination expressed by a number of individuals who had other jobs, family, and responsibilities that precluded attendance at seminary. Today the diocese sponsors the Utah Ministry Formation Program (UMFP). While it does not lead to a degree, it can lead to ordination as deacon or priest. The program is administered by the Rev. Canon Mary June Nestler, former Dean of the Episcopal Theological School at Claremont, California. UMFP students come not only from Utah, but from surrounding states. While lay persons not planning on ordination are welcomed, most students have sought or are seeking ordination, with several going on to seminary after completion of either the two or three year programs.

Inclusive Ministry

The Diocese of Utah slogan, "The Episcopal Church in Utah, Welcoming All for 140 Years", declares our intent to be inclusive. We are very aware of what it is like to be a minority. After all, we live with it every day. In addition to serving the "typical" Episcopalians of metropolitan areas, we have embraced the LGBT community and ministered to the marginalized, disenfranchised, and those outside the mainstream. We have reached out to miners and others in rural areas through churches, missions, medical facilities, and schools.

The diocese has consistently supported the LGBT community. Although he never made it known publicly during his episcopacy, Bishop Otis Charles "came out" to his wife, family, and close circle of friends while serving here and is today living in an open relationship with his partner of many years. The Rev. Lee Shaw, who freely states "I am not a gay priest, I am a priest who happens to be gay," is the rector at St. Stephens in West Valley. Many of our parishes and missions have openly gay and lesbian couples and Bishop Irish has set forth a policy concerning the blessing of their relationships that is in keeping with both our commitment to equal treatment of all people and the laws of the State of Utah.

Native American ministry has been at the core of the diocese since the late 1800s. Currently two missions are located on the lands of the Northern Utes in the Great Basin of Utah. Their congregants participate fully in conventions and provide members to the Diocesan Council.

As immigrants to Utah ourselves, we are increasingly active in establishing Spanish-speaking congregations. There are currently three full Spanish-speaking congregations: San Francisco in Moab, aligned with St. Francis; San Estaban in West Valley City, aligned with St. Stephen’s; and Buen Pastor sharing the sanctuary with Good Shepherd in Ogden. The congregations have experienced amazing growth. For example Buen Pastor went from six to 60 congregants in a year. In addition, All Saints in Salt Lake City has established a congregation of Sudanese immigrants/refugees.

Active in Social Issues

In addition to ministering to the needs of the diverse cultures and peoples of Utah, we have at times taken public stands on the issues of the day. Often the bishop has the visible focal point, and views expressed often have been less than universally popular throughout the diocese. Early bishops worked hard at maintaining cordial relations with the LDS Church (while still differing significantly in theology), striving for fair treatment of the Native Americans, backing union representation for miners and other workers, and establishing public schools. Perhaps it was Bishop Franklin Spalding’s episcopacy (1904-1914) that first drew ire for taking unpopular positions on social issues. Spalding was an outspoken socialist – values not readily shared with the majority of Utahns, then or now. "Indeed I am a socialist. Why not, aren’t you? I am a Marxian socialist … in every sense of the word."4 There weren’t many socialists in the ranks of Episcopalians in Utah and a very much smaller percentage in the general population. But the values Spalding espoused were about justice and equality for all, not just for the privileged, women’s rights, and universal access to better health care and education. And though unpopular in Salt Lake, his words found receptive audiences among rural parishioners and clergy.

Bishop Spalding was followed by an even more emphatically outspoken bishop, Paul Jones. You may have heard of him – Episcopalians commemorate his work every September 4. Bishop Jones was much opposed to The Great War in general and the United States’ entry into it in particular. He was not shy about voicing his opinion in a time when patriotism was a much better public posture. His persistence on war and peace [along with other disagreements] caused the bishop’s Council of Advice to rise up against him. Though the House of Bishops never took action, Jones eventually was forced to send his letter of resignation to, of all people, Presiding Bishop Daniel S. Tuttle, who had been Utah’s first bishop.

In the intervening years the diocese and bishops of Utah have taken public positions on a number of controversial issues, including the role of women in the church. Bishop Jones said, "There is no question, I think, but that our parishes and missions are kept open largely by the devoted efforts of women through their guilds and other organizations." He proposed, without success, that the canons be interpreted to allow woman seats at the annual convention.5 Anne Campbell Thieme was ordained as Utah’s first woman priest in 1979, only three years after such ordination was first allowed by the Episcopal Church. Women were instrumental in sustaining many of the missions, particularly those on the reservations, through hard times. Today women represent nearly half of our total clergy and serve on every commission, council, and ministry of the diocese.

The bishops’ and diocese’s position on war has varied since the days of Paul Jones, but there remains a constant voice opposed to the use of violence to settle political matters. It should be noted, however, that there is a large contingent of families associated with the military –active duty, Guard, and Reserve – throughout the diocese and particularly in the Northern Region. The diocese supports its returning servicemen and women, especially in helping those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. The diocese opposed deployment of the MX missiles throughout Utah in the 1980s and supported nuclear disarmament. Concern for the poor has not eased. Thanks to funds from the sale of St. Mark’s Hospital, for the last 20 years the diocese has been able to "put its money where its mouth is."

From Poverty to Wealth

Bishop Bates’ decision to sell the diocese’s St. Marks Hospital, long a mainstay of our ministry, was not made purely to increase diocesan coffers. During the 1980s it became increasingly difficult to administer the hospital and for the hospital to compete effectively against private corporations. The Episcopal Church in Utah had suffered from a lack of funds throughout its history. Clergy salaries were near the bottom of the scale and facilities sorely in need of repair. The sale, however, brought more than $75 million into the diocese. These funds were invested in accounts under the Corporation of the Bishop. Funds were distributed freely to any number of charitable causes, including monies for remodeling and building new parish facilities.

The diocesan staff grew in number and, as mentioned above, the bishop embarked on a plan to have "a seminary trained priest in every parish and mission." Also, funds were distributed to pay for resident clergy and the ministries of the churches within the diocese. All of these activities were noble, and on the surface it seemed like everyone would appreciate this newly found blessing of abundance. That dream was short lived. One particular problem was that the Corporation of the Bishop comprised the bishop and a very small group of advisers, and there were no records of how the money was being handled. Decisions were made solely by the bishop. Resentment grew, in no small part due to the bishop’s spending on luxury items, multifold increases in salary, large pension set asides, and no explanation of how decisions were made for supporting congregations and ministries. The financial results were good; the perceptions and climate of trust in relationships was not. Bishop Bates health began to rapidly deteriorate and he resigned in 1996.

Bishop Irish was quick to recognize that the closed approach needed to be quickly remedied. Just a few months after beginning her episcopacy she changed the structure to place all of the assets under the Corporation of The Episcopal Church in Utah, while reserving a small amount for the bishop’s Special Purposes Fund. She fully opened the books of the diocese. Concerns then turned to the budgeting process, which while open was not easily accessible to the members of the diocese. This, and other issues, led to the formation of an elected Diocesan Council in 2003. The council has authority over the budget of the diocese, while the Standing Committee serves as trustee for the Corporation of the Episcopal Church in Utah and a Board of Trustees, appointed by the Bishop, administers the Perpetual Trust of St. Peter and St. Paul, which holds the vast majority of the proceeds from the sale. The smaller Trust II is dedicated to health care for the indigent in Utah.

There are still issues over the apportionment of monies from the trust, and the majority of the parishes and all of the missions still rely upon those funds for operating expenses. At the same time, two of the parishes are fully independent of those funds and another is very close to becoming so.

Project Jubilee

In the 19th century, the Episcopal Church founded St. Mark’s Hospital, one of the first hospitals in the area. Proceeds from the sale of the hospital endowed the Perpetual Trust of St. Peter and St. Paul for the future needs and mission of the church in Utah. Since that time, the trust has provided the bulk of the revenue in the diocese for community outreach, parish and ministry support, and operating expenses. In 1999, Project Jubilee was launched to provide for the facility needs of the parishes, ministries, and operations of the diocese. A line of credit was established against the value of the Trust to repay outstanding mortgages, purchase property, build new facilities and remodel and repair others. Every parish and ministry in the diocese has been touched by Project Jubilee.

However, the Perpetual Trust, though funded with the proceeds of the St. Mark’s Hospital sale, contained restrictions in the original trust documents that made relatively little money available to meet the immediate and long-term needs of the diocese. By the late 1990s, many of our congregations faced burdens of mortgage debt and deferred maintenance expenses; some of our parishes were housed in deteriorating and sometimes even unsafe structures. Bishop Irish and the diocesan leadership committed to addressing these problems through the institution of a program aimed at tapping those considerable, but underutilized, financial resources.

Project Jubilee was designed to borrow against the income stream of the Perpetual Trust in order to enable the diocese to remove all mortgage debt from individual parishes; allow for the acquisition of land in areas of anticipated population growth and for envisioned church planting; and to fund significant remodeling of existing structures and construction of new buildings for parishes and missions throughout the diocese.

Since 1999, Project Jubilee has provided more than $45 million dollars for pressing diocesan and community needs, including:

• Pay off all existing mortgages: $3.8 M
• Purchase land and existing buildings: $9.7 M
• New construction: $22.3M
• Remodel/improve existing facilities: $7.6 M
• Grants to other faith communities/Episcopal partners: $1.8 M

The total value of the project, including congregational contributions, sales of surplus properties and other fundraising, exceeds $60 million. Every congregation in the diocese has benefited from Project Jubilee, with significantly improved facilities to support growth, ministries, and worship for a long time to come.

However, Project Jubilee brought with it a corresponding cost that will extend for a number of years. Approximately $34 million in principal, collateralized by income from the Perpetual Trust, must be repaid; about $1.4 million in debt service now accrues annually. The recent economic downturn has reduced the investment income we can expect the Perpetual Trust to generate. As such, some of the income that was anticipated from Project Jubilee has not materialized. This will make it more difficult to retire the Project Jubilee debt when principal repayment $2 million (in addition to the interest payment) must begin in the spring of 2013. Although diocesan leadership and our investment advisers have implemented a reasoned and conservative approach, establishing reserves toward the required principal payments, there will be an inevitable decrease in available budgeted operating funds over the next four years as we address our long-term obligation to retire the Project Jubilee debt.

References

1. Daniel S. Tuttle, Missionary to the Mountain West: Reminiscences of Episcopal Bishop Daniel S. Tuttle, 1866–1886 (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987)
2. Quinn, Frederick. Building the "Goodly Fellowship of Faith": A History of the Episcopal Church in Utah, 1867-1996. Logan Utah: Utah State University Press, 2004. p. 149
3. Ibid., p. 15
4. Ibid., p. 49
5. Ibid., p. 105