
In a recent sermon, I echoed our
Senior Warden's assessment that we need to
have a general engineering survey of our
buildings that will lead to replacing the aged
roof on our church proper. This is only part of
a necessary building repair program for St. Paul's.
But far from believing that this is a burden, I believe that
we have a blessed opportunity to make St. Paul's “the greenest
church in America” while maintaining our essential architectural
structure and configuration.
Oh, boy. That's a big deal and a tall order. Our recent
success with the clerestory windows shows that a clear
description of the issue combined with a commitment to keep what
we can for the purpose of worship and ministry can work.
What's the first step? As the Wardens and Vestry say, we
need to gather information on the state of our buildings. Next, we
will develop a critical path for the project (the best order to do
things in). As we go along in this we have the opportunity to learn
how to do what we need to do to become "the greenest church in
America".
At this point, we are at the beginning of what we know in
our hearts is a major undertaking. The project seems huge, let
alone the added dimension of being “green”.
It's—daunting! The whole thing is expensive! demanding!
exhausting!
At the Episcopal Divinity School, my generation of clergy
had a professor of parish ministry who was the former archdeacon
for the diocese of Bethlehem (Pennsylvania). His name was Ed
Stiess. He was as tough and practical as the coalmine district he
served. He made two major points again and again.
First, as new clergy we were entering parish service at a
time when congregational life and leadership were changing (how
right he was back in the late 1970's!).
Second, as new clergy, we needed to accept our
responsibility for leading discussion about the repair and
renovation of the thousands of church buildings that would hit the
century mark in the 1980's and beyond.
For us at St. Paul's, coming together across our
generations (we have four generations here!) in a common
commitment to preserve what is good and add what is essential is
a big motivation for our building project.
The idea of becoming “the greenest church in America”,
being undertaken by an historic congregation in Western Michigan
is actually a very practical and hopeful proposition.