BUILDING POSSIBILITIES
The summer is usually a quiet time for Church work, but we have been making progress on two fronts. First the Standing Committee appointed a new Building Committee to begin the work of planning for and implementing the ongoing maintenance tasks for the building and grounds. This committee is comprised of: Chuck Khuen and Joe Randall as co-chairs, John Keller, Gordy McIntosh, Lee Wooten, Chris Erickson, and Mary Ann Young. This same group has developed plans to address the water and ventilation issues in the lower level as well as addressing drainage problems with the site. These solutions will be much less disruptive to the Church’s operations and its finances. They also worked with a structural engineering firm which determined that the trusses in the sanctuary are sound and will not need additional reinforcement. We will bring the details to the congregation in a meeting this fall.
Ann Storer has worked with many of you over the summer to refine the Master Plan document so that it includes the ideas and needs discussed in our sessions last spring. The goal is to summarize the Master Planning work to date, documenting the needs identified and some conceptual solutions. Please respond to Ann’s drafts with your edits so we can complete this product. It will be a firm foundation for moving into the next stage of discussing how we might cluster projects and implement them over time, so that the building works better for the congregation.
Finally, thanks to Mary Ann Young for her service on Sacred Spaces. Mary Ann has a devotion to our building that has inspired our Building Possibilities work, and she presented her message to us in her August 19th service. Her son played beautifully and her daughter assembled a slide show of sacred places and buildings. I leave you with this quote from one of her readings:
“On one hand, worship spaces are crucibles of memories. On the other hand, they can help the worshiper imagine how things might be. This combination of memory and imagination can help people survive. It is one of the ingredients of religious ritual even in traditions that typically do not use ceremonies in their gatherings. The very act of a community coming together to pray, to listen to sacred text and sermons, to sing hymns or engage in a communal meal is for many a source of sustenance.
Religious buildings cannot be thought of as mere containers for ritual objects and activity, they are metaphors, extensions of the religious experience. They derive meaning from the faith and the traditions of the congregation and they nourish the same community to grow and develop into new generations of believers. Worship spaces can be resonators when the stories of the faith community are apparent in the very design of the building.”
- Father Richard Vosko
May it be so, Linda Battaglini
