Trinity Episcopal Church
Cnr. Wall Street and Broadway, Lower Manhattan, New York.

If anyone ever wondered just how rich churches are in this age of rising disbelief… Check this out. The financial books at New York’s Trinity Church have been revealed in court documents arising from a bitter parish legal dispute over, you guessed it, money. This Episcopal church (a member of the US Episcopal branch of the Anglican Church or Church of England as you might know it) holds property valued at a whopping $2 billion within its parish, including some of the most prized real estate in Manhattan, near SoHo and Greenwich Village.

Michael Nagle for The New York Times
Most of Trinity Church’s Manhattan real estate holdings are in the Hudson Square area, including a vacant lot at Duarte Square.

Also revealed, was the compensation package paid to the Trinity Church rector, the Rev. James H. Cooper who gets an annual salary of $US475,000 which rises to $US1.3 million when pension contributions and the imputed value of his opulent $5.5 million, church owned town house, are included.

So next time you look up at the pious face of your priest, ask yourself if his/her calling was inspired by the man in the simple cloth who owned nothing, Jesus, or was it just a canny career choice.

See the full New York Times report here:
• Trinity Church Split on How to Manage $2 Billion Legacy of a Queen by Sharon Otterman (NYT 24 April 2013)

Note: I’m reliably informed that Catholic priests are paid a standard and much lower salary.

Imagine what good you could do with $2 billion? Hell, that’s a quarter of Bangladesh’s education budget.

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