I don’t know when the May “Anchor” will come out, but here’s my column!
Making hot cross buns in the renovated kitchen on Maundy Thursday!
All Saints’ has been talking about a capital campaign for a long time, and events keep overtaking us, from the pandemic to the current world economic situation. Closer to home, we have repeatedly reevaluated what needs to be done to, for and with our building, based on urgent priorities, from maximizing accessibility to making the kitchen usable. It seems like every time we sit down to have a rational, comprehensive conversation about the whole situation, some other urgent necessity pops up. Most recently, of course, we discovered that we need a new roof.
(A couple of factual footnotes to the conversation from the March parish meeting:
- it looks like the current roof is not fully the original 1959 one, but rather dates partly from the late eighties;
- the Corporation looked into the possibility of applying for funds from the Patrimoine Réligieuse and established that the process would take more than a year and be unlikely to cover more than a small fraction of the cost of the project, as only the Chapel would be eligible; and that moreover, receiving heritage designation would then substantially restrict our ability to do what we like with our building going forward.)
The nature of a capital campaign is such that a very significant portion of the work gets done in advance and without a lot of fanfare, both in terms of what work is feasible and desirable to undertake, and the structure of how the money will be raised. We have been moving forward with this work – not necessarily steadily, but we have been moving! – and we now have enough information to gather the congregation for a Planning & Prioritizing Meeting on Saturday, May 10, from 9 AM to 1 PM (concluding, of course, with a potluck lunch!)
This will be similar to the meeting we had about the kitchen before beginning that project, but instead of just listing things we want to do with the space, we’ll hear about the different projects that we need to do or want to do, get some idea of the costs, and then come to a consensus about how much we think we can undertake at this time and what order to do it in. Then we can finally begin to come to grips with the fundraising side of the campaign because we’ll have at least a rough number for our goal.
It’s also high time to form an official Capital Campaign Committee, so if you’d like to be involved, or if I ask you if you’d be willing to serve in that capacity, please think seriously about how your talents and energy might be a good fit for this very important task!
See you on May 10!
In God’s peace,
Grace+
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