Following the Money

In my recent post on last Wednesday’s service put on by the folks from the Denver cathedral, I wrote:

We were told that last night’s service was a gift to St. Paul’s, though it was not clear from whom or why. Did the musicians pay their own way to Pittsburgh so they could sell a few CDs? It seemed churlish to ask last night, but enquiring minds would like to know.

Asking around, I have yet to find a justification for the use of the word “gift.” The vestry has apparently spent $4,000 from the Education Fund on the Refuge/Wilderness project. $1,000 was used to send Kris to Denver to check out The Wilderness. The remaining fee was a consulting fee to Kate Eaton. I might have questioned Eaton more aggressively had I know that we had paid her $3,000 to be at St. Paul’s. Travel expenses for her and other musicians were apparently paid for from this fee.

The good news for parishioners, I suppose, is that no money has been spent from general funds for the Refuge/Wilderness project. I don’t know where the money in the Education Fund came from, but I presume that it is intended for education. Spending $4,000 for a demonstration worship service seems a rather imaginative use of the term “education.”