A Dispute Over Debt at the New Methodist Church
Congregational tension surfaces as trustees weigh a $10,000 loan to complete the new North Seattle building project.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
On Thursday evening, Trinity M. E. Church held a meeting in North Seattle, at which the Rev. S. Alonzo Bright, D. D., presided, to get the feeling of the congregation upon the proposed loan of $10,000 from the Church Extension Society for the purpose of building the new church. Of the six trustees, O. M. Sheafe, Andrew Uren, and Mrs. John R. Kinnear were opposed to signing the application for the loan, deeming it unwise at this time to incur the debt. It seemed to be the sense of the meeting, however, that a church ought to be built, as a lot worth $5,000 and building material worth $10,000 had been already contributed by Mr. and Mrs. D. T. Denny. John B. Denny, who is one of the trustees, is hopeful that the matter will be adjusted in a few days.
“Dr. Bright says he never knew a church in his life that did not start in debt, but they always come out of it.”
The tension between building grand civic structures and managing the long-term debt of faith-based organizations is a perennial struggle in Seattle. While today's real estate market presents even higher stakes, the reliance on initial philanthropic seed money—like the Dennys' donation—remains a cornerstone of local development.
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