St. John the Baptist’s ‘Steeple Fund’ has raised $200k of $500k necessary to add a steeple to their Church, almost entirely within the community. An anonymous donor has offered a matching gift of up to $20k of any donations given to the fund by Jan. 15th. Donations should be marked as for the fund.So now there's a "steeple fund" to place a new steeple on the church. How does this relate to the parish's former building fund and its previous master plan?Submitted by Peter Smith of St. Alban’s
For instance, in its May, 2018 parish newsletter, SJB announced,
Knowing that our buildings present some serious usability issues, we commissioned a Master Plan for the property from the church architectural firm of Cram & Ferguson. These are the architects who designed what is now our Cathedral in Houston, along with many other great church buildings over the years.The recommendationss from the study were prioritized in a series of goals for the building fund:. . . Before commissioning the Plan, we identified a number of issues to be addressed: at this point only the nave level of the church is wheel-chair accessible – no floor of the parish house is nor the lower church. We lack a good space for coffee hour, and for larger meetings. The back parking lot is not convenient for either parish house or church. The church itself needs better lighting, and could use a more “Anglican” feel for our liturgy. We lack a usable outdoor space for kids’ play or for summer coffee hour. The church tower is squat, and there are long-standing cracks in some of the interior walls.
My regular correspondent comments,
- lack of handicap accessibility everywhere except the nave level of the church
- longstanding cracks in the walls of the church tower, source unknown
- tower appears squat from the street
- lack of attractive and acoustically usable meeting space in the parish house
- interior church issues: formica, obviously fake marble, dim lighting, an Italian rather than English character
- ugly exterior shelters over the side doors to the church
- lack of outdoor space usable for summer coffee hour, kids’ play, etc.
- general lack of attractiveness of outside of parish house
Interesting to note that “Tower appears squat from the street” has financial priority over “acoustically usable meeting space,” “lack of outdoor space,” or even, dear Lord, “formica” and “obviously fake marble.” I guess it’s a case of “What will the neighbours think?”There's no mention of how a $500,000 steeple fund relates to the building fund that solicits donations on the parish website. It sounds as though this is a completely separate project, with a priority that apparently has become greater than the other issues, such as lighting, parking lot access, or handicap accessibility. Or is this something that could be addressed simply by clearer communication from the parish council?
If the cracks mentioned in the tower walls are now understood to be a threat to the building and the public, that could definitely change things -- but from what we hear, this doesn't seem to be the case.
Another question in my mind is how the steeple project relates to the overall general plan. Our novus ordo parish has just such a plan -- but necessary changes are clearly explained in relation to the overall budget, line items, and priorities.
For instance, new fencing around the elementary school was originally a "Phase II" improvement. But when a full donation was made for that purpose, under the condition that the new fencing be installed immediately, this change was announced in the parish bulletin.
In SJB's case, no overall budget or schedule has been posted, and it's hard to avoid thinking the steeple has been plucked out of the middle of the list and given a new, higher priority, without explanation. And we don't know the cost of the other line items, or how the steeple will affect their implementation.
Like so much else, it's all sorta-kinda-maybe someday. Even the Protestants do better than this.
