Message from Father Hague:
Building Renovation—what do we mean?
That is the question I am hearing frequently, since we announced that our Church Building Renovation Advisory Committee hired the architectural firm of MTFA to guide us in drawing up a plan for addressing some of the needs of our fifty-year-old structure.
The other question I am hearing is, “Why do we need to renovate—the church looks fine to me?”
The most visible answer to this question will become self-evident if you walk around our church floor. The 1958 tiles (original to the church) are crumbling and are in desperate need of replacement. At first glance this may seem like a fairly simple, straightforward task. The questions that our renovation committee has been grappling with over the past two years have become manifold: replace the tiles with what? Should we take the opportunity to improve our musically poor acoustics? What would such an improvement entail? Why not provide a system for the hearing impaired? Why can’t we update our electrical wiring and lighting systems? Shouldn’t we make the church more accessible and provide space and accessibility for wheel chairs?
These questions have raised other deferred maintenance issues involving structural integrity and leakage, and adequate lighting for our parking lot and walkways. In fact the more we have discussed our issues the more we have felt the need for professional guidance so that our renovations would embrace a “big picture” rather than allowing our efforts to appear “piecemeal.” Consequently our committee met with our new architects for a two-day retreat to discuss not only our immediate dreams but also to visualize our long-term needs and dream about ways that our facilities could more effectively enhance our mission. The twenty-member committee includes representatives from every ministry in our church: property, worship, music, outreach, inreach, education, youth, Women of Christ Church, budget and finance, vestry, administration. The results of our retreat will be shared with the whole congregation on:
On Nov. 18, the architects took the opportunity to describe the analysis process and hear your thoughts as they prepare their research. It is our hope that they will be able to present a Long Range Plan at our Annual Parish Meeting in March, and thus inaugurate the Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration of our church building.
We want everyone to be involved in this exciting process. This is our spiritual home. May we make every effort to care for our home as we cherish those things that have become so meaningful for us while we enhance those things that will strengthen our mission.
Faithfully yours,
Bill Hague
