Our Building

Dear People of Christ Church,

This week, I'm passing on a building update from senior warden Jonathan Duce...many thanks for all the hard work, Jonathan!

As you've probably noticed, our tower is looking significantly shinier, and the lift is gone! Our engineers from Simpson Gumpertz & Heger have submitted six field reports since April 15th.. Each report documents the progress of our tower repairs. The most recent report states that the cross is securely in place at the top of the spire and repointing at the spire is complete. A lot of attention has been paid to detail such as the ochre color of sand to match the ochre color of the original mortar in the as closely as possible. The final mix is made up of: 5 parts East Hartford yellow sand, 1 part East Hartford Red sand, 1 part Iron Clad gray ("buff") cement, 1 part lime.

The final work to be done on the outside was to repair the roof stone slabs at the tower stairs. Interior tower work starts next. Our mortar and cross stabilization was paid for by our CPA (Community Preservation Act) grant for historic preservation from the city of Waltham, which will also cover the majority of the interior roof work. Our own capital campaign funds have gone to the project oversight from SGH, to be sure everything is done to spec.

Another capital campaign project is to improve handicap accessibility.  This spring, the vestry voted to engage Perry Brothers Construction to rebuild the sacristy bathroom (and resulting sacristy re-design). The paperwork is now slowly making its way through the city permitting process. Once the permits are in place work will begin. We have been told that it will be a 4-5 week construction timeline once the crew gets started.    

The generosity and faith on the part of everyone at Christ Church in contributing to the capital campaign has been an inspiration; if you haven't yet made a pledge, please see the full write up about the work to be done  here. Our final tally was $311,220 in commitments, from 45 individuals and families.  Our average pledge was close to $7,000 divided over five years...you are amazing givers!   Since we met our first campaign goal, 85% of funds now stay at Christ Church with 15% going to wider mission

Thank you for your gifts, and for your patience!

Blessings, 

Sara+ 

Dear People of Christ Church,

On Sunday, we shared the news of our parish capital campaign, which has so far had wonderful success with the wise leadership of our co-chairs, Mike Balulescu and Cathy Hughes. Since late August, we've been meeting with folks in the very early stages of the campaign, and on Sunday we reported that of our goal of $260,000, we have so far received pledges for over 200,000! We are already so wonderfully close to our goal, but we will only reach it (and go beyond) with everyone's participation.

Giving to a capital campaign is kind of a funny thing. Year after year, I look at our budget and lament at how much of our expenses go to our building. The building. The deferred maintenance. The drafty windows. The bunching carpet. The building just doesn't seem very exciting. Heat, electricity, snow plowing-they don't exactly add up to a rousing story of changed lives. It's the people inside the building-and the people who will come-who are the story of the Holy Spirit moving in this place, not the bricks and mortar. And let me tell you about mortar--I've been learning a lot about it lately.

At the same time, when I think about the capital campaign and all the things we're talking about doing with the building, I actually get a little excited. What if the narthex (a fancy church word for vestibule) were as welcoming and bright as the people who stand there and serve as greeters each Sunday? What if you weren't embarrassed to tell someone where the bathroom is, knowing they're just going to see that peeling plaster or, worse, not be able to go inside at all because they use a wheelchair? This stuff actually matters. Contributing to the green grants programs, the intern program, B Safe, and so many other great ministries across Eastern Massachusetts, our impact along with the diocesan campaign is significant.

Our campaign pledges will be over five years; no one is asking you to break the bank and write a check today for the full pledge amount. As a pastor, it has been an incredible blessing for me to witness to the gifts that are given. In each of these conversations we've had, everyone is doing the best they can; your gift is your gift. It's just that-a gift. And we are thankful for every single gift, no matter the size. From $5,000 to $50,000-your faith and love have been remarkable. The gift of $5.00 can be remarkable. These is not an everyday event, and these are not everyday gifts. There's a reason this hasn't been done since 1953.

And, so, here we are. Given that there are a lot of details to what we're doing and how, you'll get a call in the next few weeks from one of our visiting team, who will ask to talk personally with you about the campaign. I'm going to close with what Mike said on Sunday, whose intro to the campaign you can read here (it's really worth a read, if you weren't in church-it blew my sermon right out of the water!).

So when someone asks you if you would like to talk more about this campaign, I hope you'll say "yes." If someone asks you if you would like to assist with the campaign, I hope you'll say "yes." And when your heart implores you to dream about what we can accomplish together, in one breath, in one collective, shared sacrifice, I hope your response will be "yes." Thank you.

Blessings,

Sara+