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Dear friends,
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. |
We are located in a state and region that is full of research
facilities and builders who are interested in figuring out exactly
what we need to work through:
My conviction is that we can find help to accomplish our purpose from people and organizations and industry because what we are doing is going to be of general interest. It will be exciting to a company or a donor or an organization to be a part of preserving the space and “feel” of an historic building while reworking the systems and environmental footprint. Think of what we offer: a chance for a company or individual or organization to say that they know how to help historic buildings be green and retain their identity. That is already getting us “buzz” among people in the general area of “green” technology and utilities. I believe it will turn into partnerships and contributions that will help us give glory to God in our space and our worship, accomplishing our goal without emptying our pockets. Before we do anything, of course, there will be general conversation and participation invited from everyone, and the same will be true all along our way. God's peace and joy, Tom Scott
Online Newsletter
The preceding text is the rector's introduction for our monthly newsletter, "The Epistle".
The newsletter is mailed to all members of St. Paul's Church and is also available in our
Church office. An online version of "The Epistle" is available here:
You will need the Adobe PDF reader to read these files. If you don't already have this installed it can be downloaded here:
 Worship Schedule & Special Events
We have a detailed monthly calendar which shows our worship schedule and special events.
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