Episcopalian Conference Center Work Under Way

The Conference and Spiritual Life Center, located in the Rio Grande bosque off Coors NW, will offer a focal point for Episcopalians, ecumenical groups and the larger community in a rustic setting, he said.

“This will be a place that will enable community — a place where people get together, meet each other, identify with each other,” Vono said after a brief ground-breaking ceremony.

Interaction with people of other faiths will be a core mission of the center, he said.

“We want to emphasize that, in the Episcopal Church, the doors are always open,” Vono said.

The diocese plans to relocate its offices to the center from its current location at 4304 Carlisle NE.

The center is expected to open in August. The project will use local contractors and workers, Vono said.

The conference center is part of a five-acre site called the Bosque Spirituality and Conference Center, which was purchased by the diocese in January for $1.7 million. The property was formerly operated as the Spiritual Renewal Center by the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine de’ Ricci, a Roman Catholic order, and later by a nonprofit group.

The site features New Mexico-style landscaped grounds and walking paths and a 45-room retreat house that was recently renovated.

The diocese plans to lease the center to businesses, schools, nonprofits and other groups for retreats and conferences. Its setting in the river bosque, with views of the Sandias, give the center a rural feel, said the Rev. Daniel Gutierrez, the diocese’s canon to the ordinary.

“It’s set in this rural setting in the middle of the city,” he said. “People come out here and fall in love with it.”

The center will fill a niche for mid-size conferences that don’t require large hotel accommodations, Gutierrez said. The diocese already has received inquiries from across the nation, he said.

“We anticipate we will have bookings as soon as it’s open,” he said.