The Rev. Charles N. Fulton, III, President of the Episcopal Church Building Fund, has announced his intention to retire in the fall of 2008. Father Fulton also serves as the Director of Congregational Development at the Episcopal Church Center.

“Father Fulton’s 20 years of service with the Building Fund, including 17 years as President, have witnessed remarkable growth in the scale and importance of its activities within the Episcopal Church,” said Board Chairman the Right Rev. Gethin B. Hughes, retired Bishop of San Diego. “Charles’ unique combination of personal and professional qualities have enabled him to lead the Building Fund into the proactive area of congregational development for the Church as well as continuing its traditional work as a key funding source for new Church plantings and rehabilitation and improvements of existing Church facilities. Charles will be sorely missed. The Board recognizes the challenge of finding a replacement and has initiated an intensive search process under the leadership of the Rev. Ralph R. (“Hap”) Warren, Jr., Rector of Bethesda-by-the Sea, Palm Beach, Florida ((561) 655-4554, hapwarren@priest.com).”

Trained in architecture, followed by 15 years as rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Franklin, TN, a pastoral size congregation that he doubled to a program congregation, Charles Fulton was called to the Episcopal Church Building Fund in 1987, assuming the role of President in 1990.  Charles created a planning process for congregations engaged in building projects, authoring Church Sites and Building, Process Guide for Congregations.  He formulated an understanding of how buildings can be tools for evangelism and created a provocative analysis of the ways we gather people for work and worship in the church.  He created two resources on liturgical design, authoring The Church for Common Prayer, A Statement on Worship Space for the Episcopal Church and was the Associate Producer of the video “Churches for Common Prayer”.  He designed the liturgical space at the Philadelphia and Denver General Convention sites.

In keeping with the ECBF mission of “Helping Build the Church, and Helping the Church to Build” Charles moved the Fund from a loan-only focus to one including congregational vitality.  He developed an application of the theory of congregational life cycle and guidelines for gathering people that support a positive outcome.  His use of humor and irreverent style earned him the nickname as the James Carville of the Episcopal Church as he became a national consultant, workshop leader, and keynote speaker for dioceses and international gathering on issues of congregational health and development. 

Charles leads the popular training events Start Up!Start Over! Congregational Development Seminar and Upward Bound – Leading Congregations Through Change, Decisions, and Conflict.  In 2001 he was appointed as Director of Congregational Development for the Episcopal Church, while continuing his role as ECBF President.  He was appointed by Presiding Bishop Frank T. Griswold, III to coordinate the national Churches’ response to the 20/20 Resolution.  Charles initiated a national conference for new church development, ‘Plant My Church’, developed with the Gallup Organization an assessment tool to identify new church planters, and initiated a Lilly  funded national research project on new church starts. He created bi-annual consultations of Diocesan Congregational Development Staff and is pleased to leave as a legacy the position he created for first ever full-time Researcher position for the national church.

A graduate of Auburn University and General Theological Seminary, Charles began his ministry as a Curate and then Assistant at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Nashville before serving as the rector of St. Paul’s.  Charles is married to Donna Kay (nee Smith) and has two grown children.