A two decade old pledge provides Church and Society with $250k

Two decades ago an Asheville, North Carolina, couple pledged to support the good works of Church and Society. That pledge was realized last year as Church and Society gratefully received a check for more than $250,000 to improve the iconic United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

The building, Church and Society, and social justice always were important to the Asheville couple, Helen and William “Bill” Depp. Bill Depp, a retired contract administrator, was the son of a United Methodist minister.

The Depps were members of Skyland United Methodist Church in Asheville in the Western North Carolina Annual Conference. Their contribution was made in memory of their late son, Mark, who tragically died when he was a teenager. Their only other child, Philip, died in his 40s of AIDS, sometime before his parents’ deaths.

“We offer praise and glory to Mr. and Mrs. Depp for their dedication to Church and Society and the United Methodist Building,” said the Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe, general secretary of the Church and Society. “Out of their travails came a commitment to living faith, seeking justice, and pursuing peace.”

In 1998, when Church and Society was celebrating the 75th anniversary of the United Methodist Building, the Depps made a deferred gift to Church and Society from the William and Helen Depp Revocable Trust. The contribution was a significant part of a $3 million campaign to renovate the building, which sits across the street from the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court.

Mrs. Depp died in 1999. Mr. Depp in 2009. Mr. Depp had remarried and his second wife Marion died in 2017 which prompted the contribution last year.

The Rev. Jeffrey Stinehelfer, now an interim pastor in Washington D.C., staffed Church and Society’s building campaign in the late 1990s. He invited the Depps to the building’s 75th-anniversary celebration and remembers their constant dedication to the United Methodist Church and to social justice.

“Bill and Helen Depp were active, faithful members of The United Methodist Church, and enthusiastic advocates of the mission of the Board of Church and Society,” he said. “Their extraordinary generosity testified to their understanding of the symbolic significance of the United Methodist Building beating strong as the heart of America’s Capitol Hill.”

Dr. Mark Grossnickle of Macon, Georgia, the Depps’ nephew, and sole remaining relative, said he possesses a precious reminder of Church and Society, an engraved clock that the agency gave the Depps as a keepsake in 1998. “I look at it every day and remember them,” Grossnickle said.

A plaque in the lobby of the United Methodist Building commemorating the Depps’ contribution to the agency is engraved “Mr. and Mrs. William Depp, In Memory of Their Son, Mark Depp.”

Henry-Crowe said the Depps’ contribution would be put to excellent use. The United Methodist Building was constructed in 1923, and a connected building was added in 1931. The two buildings house the headquarters of Church and Society, the church’s General Commission on Race and Religion, offices of the Council of Bishops and United Methodist Women, and more than 30 other faith-based and social-justice-oriented organizations.

Included are the Washington offices of many religions and denominations, including offices of the Episcopal, Lutheran, and Presbyterian churches, the United Church of Christ, along with the headquarters of the National Council of Churches, Churches for Middle East Peace, and the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

The building served as the site for many historic events, including the planning of the March on Washington and the Poor People’s March. Three years ago, the building was named a Heritage Landmark of United Methodism.

The trustees’ committee of Church and Society’s Board of Directors and the building’s manager have developed a 20-year plan for capital projects required to keep the building in good order. In addition, the trustees are exploring how better to tell the rich history of the building, the agency and the denomination to the millions of tourists who walk by the building on their way to and from tours of The Capitol, the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress.

Over the past two years, Church and Society, led by Henry-Crowe and the Rev. Jeania Ree Moore, director of human and civil rights advocacy, has installed three temporary public-art projects on the grounds of the building to provoke action on social-justice issues, including criminal justice reform, gun violence, and immigration reform. The agency’s church sign in front of the building has long been an important feature of the building, “speaking truth to power,” according to the general secretary.

Henry-Crowe encourages those interested in exploring planned giving for United Methodist social justice to contact the Church and Society office. “It is special to think how a commitment of 20 years ago will help us continue our mission, which may be more important now than ever.“