Like it was for most Episcopal priests, Ash Wednesday was a big day for Rev. Doran Stambaugh. He arrived at St. Michael’s at 7:40 a.m., 20 minutes before his first of three services that day. He knew something was wrong the minute he walked in to Carlsbad’s historic church by the sea.

Smashed tabernacle

“As I walked down the hall, I saw all the doors were open. I could see someone had taken a crowbar to the hardware on the cabinets.”

As he walked into the main nave, Stambaugh saw the approximately one-square-foot marble “tabernacle” that held the reserve sacraments was missing from the center of the main altar. What he saw, he says, was “spiritually violent…. They took the tabernacle and threw it on the ground.”

The thieves made off with a silver ciborium that held the reserved sacraments inside the tabernacle.

“This is an incredibly profane thing to do,” says Stambaugh. “I wonder if whoever did that knew it was the heart of the church.”

Stolen, Stambaugh says, were about 15 sacred vessels, including chalices, cruets, and bowls, used to administer baptisms and communion.

“I was running out of time since I had mass in a few minutes,” says Stambaugh. “I called our administrator and the head of our altar guild.”

Stambaugh tried to keep cool during the 8 a.m. mass, which was held in the adjacent “chapel” (St. Michael’s original church, built in 1894).

“By the time the service was over, the police and our bishop [James Mathes] were there…. I sent out a parish-wide email. I quoted Jesus, saying, ‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and thieves break in and steal. Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves do not break in and steal.’ I said the silver is gone but our lord remains….

“St. Patrick’s Catholic church [in Carlsbad] caught wind of it and offered us the use of their vessels.”

A preliminary estimate was a loss in the tens of thousands of dollars. St. Michael’s is insured, but Stambaugh says most items are irreplaceable.

“Most of them were given by parishioners who had them inscribed. Unless they melt them down, it will be hard for them to pawn. That’s why I want to get the word out.”

What puzzles Stambaugh is that a flat-screen TV and an iPad were left behind.

“They pried open file cabinets in the choir loft but only found sheet music. They even pried open the wooden panels that hold the organ pipes…. I did find a set of keys they left behind, which I gave to the police, hoping that may lead to something.”

Stambaugh said the thieves forced their way into the north door (closest to Magee Park) sometime after he left on Tuesday night and before his arrival the next morning. “They went in and out that door.”