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Mission, Boldness, and Stewardship: Gibbs Hall and All Saints Chapel 18 October 2001 Dear CDSP Community Members: I write to you as I look at Gibbs Hall, CDSP's first, and most handsome, building here in Berkeley. Over the years it has contained, at one time or another, virtually all things necessary for our seminary: chapel, library, classrooms and residential housing. Gradually, CDSP has built other structures to fulfill most of these functions, with Gibbs becoming a residential site also containing our sacristy and a lounge for meetings and visitor social space. And then, shortly after the Loma Prieta quake of 1989, we were informed that because Gibbs Hall was an unreinforced masonry building, we had until 2001 (!) to develop plans to either retrofit or raze it, even as we moved the Center for Anglican Learning and Leadership into it. Until very recently we had been planning to renovate Gibbs. There was much enthusiasm for those plans as we were assured we could expand and improve our housing needs and fulfill our program needs for CALL. In the past few weeks, however, we discovered the price for such renovation had escalated to over $5 million, with no assurance it wouldn't grow still more. And the idiosyncrasies of this old building also required more and more of our program and residential needs to be omitted! So what to do? The CDSP Board of Trustees, with the advice and counsel of many friends and experts, have chosen to put the present plans "on hold" and to explore another option—building a new structure which more adequately meets the future needs of CDSP. But as we considered such an option, it was also agreed we must also address another long-standing challenge and opportunity: the building of a new chapel! So, in the very near future, we will engage the services of an architectural firm to look at both a new Gibbs Hall and a new chapel. A much enlarged committee, composed of all those affected by and interested in such planning, will work hard to provide another alternative to a renovated Gibbs Hall, hoping to present this option to the trustees within the next twelve months. All of this is exciting and sobering news. There are many imponderable elements: cost, inevitable compromises, impact on the GTU and Berkeley, and so much more. But two of the most important strategic directions of our seminary at the heart of its mission, the Center for Anglican Learning and Leadership and the excellence of our liturgical life, are driving these plans. As one of our wisest advisors said to us, we are now in the process of building our future, not memorializing our past. Such a goal, driven by our mission, is surely worth the effort we will be expending in the next few months. The immediate effect of the trustees' decision means we will not be relocating classrooms in the 2002-2003 academic year. And while some of whatever else is called for may not yet be known, one thing is clear: we will keep all of you informed as to what is happening, for you have a stake in this exciting future of our school. Buildings come and go, but the theological education we are committed to remains. Our partnership with the church epitomized by CALL, and our belief that excellence in worship and those who lead it require the best worship space we can provide-these will endure at CDSP, hopefully in new physical forms in the near future. I am glad you are all a part of these new things God is calling us to do, and be. Faithfully yours, Donn F. Morgan |
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