Letter to the Editor: Insights into Cornerstone Ministries

To the Editor:

Thank you for an excellent, thoroughly researched article “Unfinished Business For the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) published on 15 March 2011. My family has been intimately involved in the Cornerstone Ministries Investments (CMI) debacle, at many levels, and I would like to share some of the details with you.

A third generation Presbyterian, my young family arrived in Miami in 1972 from Trinidad when I accepted a position of Assistant Professor at the opening of a new state university, Florida International, a mile away from Trinity PCA [Lakeland, Florida]. My family made Trinity our new church home. The Rev. Cecil Brooks arrived at Trinity in 1976 at which time I was a deacon and church treasurer. The Ottingers were hired two years later and we got know them very well. I later served as a ruling elder with Pastor Brooks.

My family knew the Brookses intimately. Trinity was our family and Cecil was our leader. One of the many things we did together was establish a ministry in Haiti. When Mr. Brooks resigned in 1981, he passed on the Haiti ministry to me. This 501(c)(3) ministry continues today, but has lost about $4,000 in investments made with CMI.

When Brooks began the Presbyterian Investors Fund (PIF), we gladly participated. By this time, other Trinity folks were absorbed into the PIF, including Jack Ottinger, Shirley and Robert Covington, and later, one of my former fellow elders, John Underwood. This only served to enhance our trust in the ministry of PIF. After all, these were our friends, or so we thought!

We were involved in the PIF and its succeeding organizations throughout the life of these bodies. We always believed that our purchase of bonds was within a non-profit, with the funds employed to build churches and life-care facilities. We had no idea, and were not informed, that a long list of for-profit corporations were eventually established and that  the Brookses and Ottingers made millions of dollars from through dubious double-dealing activities later carefully detailed in the bankruptcy Examiner’s Report.

For years, we received glowing reports from Brooks about the Fund’s success assisting with the building of churches. We had no access to information that we now understand the PCA administration had since about 1990, and which they apparently sat upon. When Ottinger informed us around the beginning of 2008 about issues at CMI, he put a very positive spin on it, assuring all that the funds were secure and that reorganization would take care of everything. Instead, my family has apparently lost thousands of dollars and my grandson has lost his college account.

I have been a member of the PCA  since its inception. I have served as an elder, active and inactive since 1981. I am horrified to learn that for-profit corporations were established, sharing the same address, and in some cases the same officers with that of the PCA.  I sincerely hope that the PCA authorities make a meaningful effort to confront  the challenges that this issue has indirectly raised for the denomination.

.

Ken Boodhoo, PhD

Emeritus Professor

Florida International University

.