Marker was installed without permission of Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana
“That’s what we do, when we are faced with roadblocks; we know how to pivot and go around them.”
As Paula DeBois tells it, that’s what her church – Gary’s St. Augustine Episcopal Church, 2425 W. 19th Avenue – had to do as it nears its 100th anniversary.
In August, the church installed an Indiana State Historical Marker. “Anyone reading that marker will have a snapshot of who we are, what we meant to this community,” DeBois said.
Those roadblocks are coming to the surface now, says DeBois, because they came from her community, the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana. “We were having trouble getting support from our own diocese regarding the marker that tells our history and celebrates our story,” DeBois said.
And they come at a time when the Diocese’s Bishop Doug Sparks was the keynote speaker at Tuesday’s Urban League of Northwest Indiana’s Leadership Luncheon.
When DeBois heard that Bishop Sparks was the speaker, she emailed a letter to Vanessa Allen-McCloud, President & CEO of the Urban League expressing her “dismay when he doesn’t match what they consider their goals and values.”
“I told her I was troubled by their selection. And the reason I am troubled by their selection is because he gave absolutely no support with signing off on the site permission form for the marker,” DeBois said.
DeBois forwarded her letter to the National Urban League President Marc Morial and to the President of the Chicago Urban League Karen Freeman-Wilson.
Bishop Sparks said he was aware of DeBois’s marker initiative over the last 2 years. “I was included in every communication that Walter Hampton, the Senior Warden at St. Augustine and DeBois were in conversation about the marker.”
“Time and time again, I said, ‘Paula, I’m in support of what you want to do, but you have to bring the paperwork for its review to the legitimately elected members of the congregation who are the wardens and vestry.’ And she refused,” Sparks said.
“Ms. Dubois decided never to come in person. All she did was send paperwork and say please sign this. That’s not how our polity works,” Sparks said.
DeBois is a member of the church, not an officer, the bishop said. “Her lack of attention to abiding by the rules that are established by the Episcopal Church regarding not speaking on behalf of a church that you’re not an officer of has caused deep conflict with the members of St. Augustine.”
“She’s basically told lies about me to the former mayor, she has sent emails, and I’m considering bringing these questions before the chancellor of our diocese about the possibility of taking legal action against Ms. DeBois,” Sparks said.
DeBois said Bishop Sparks was unresponsive to her multiple requests, and those from Indiana Landmarks and the Indiana Historical Bureau. “Actually he was holding up the project. That project could not go forward because he would not sign that site permission form.”
“I had to come up with another location and another way to put the marker in the ground. I had to pivot,” DeBois said.
