As we enjoy the summertime sunshine, the beauty of garden flowers and grassy open spaces, and the promise of fresh tomatoes ripening towards their potential, I wish to share about some happy additions and enhancements to the church property that will be arriving this summer and fall at Saint Gabriel.
On the grounds, we will be installing a new teak bench in loving memory of our dear friend Sue Baker. Sue participated in the Wednesday morning Bible Study and on her passing, the group wanted to offer something by way of a memorial, and we settled on the bench that will be placed on the northeast side adjacent to the east entrance. This will provide a needed place for people to sit and talk or wait for a guest to arrive or a Lyft to pull up.
Another project that we are hoping to complete in the next few months is a block and stucco mailbox base that will complement the exterior façade and provide a more secure placement to send and receive church mail. At the same time, we intend to make modest repairs to the stucco on various places on the building’s exterior. A final exterior improvement will be concrete grinding on a few concrete sidewalk sections where they have been raised on one end and are currently a tripping hazard. I offer my thanks to our Junior Warden, Rose Lynch, for provided excellent leadership and oversite of these projects.
Inside the building, our friends at the Denver design group Grammar of Ornament will be providing modest enhancements to the parish hall. This project will tie in the parish hall entry (where our restrooms and church offices are located) with the hall itself.
Principal areas to be addressed:
· Bulto niche background
· Baseboard border
· Knee wall (behind the sofa and side tables)
· Sconces
You can view sketches of these projects on a foamboard display in the parish hall.
Memorial gifts are also in use as we replace worn or damaged liturgical items. Altar Guild co-directress Sharon Stewart is selecting oil candles for the Tenebrae hearse (you can Google what that is!), an incense bowl, and other smaller items that receive occasional use.
A project that I’m excited to share is still in the works. Since we began livestreaming services, people have found this helpful, especially on the occasions of funerals and baptisms, as they seek to include family and friends who live in other states, cities or even countries. For baptism I have moved the (very heavy) shell font from the entrance to the church to the crossing at the altar rail. I have longed for a supplemental font to use for this purpose. We are designing a font that will have a wood base that replicates design elements from the altar itself and the retable (or gradine) shelf behind the altar. This font will not only be moveable but will serve as a visual reminder of our baptisms into the life, death and resurrection of our Lord.
Just as the idea of spiritual growth in holiness and Christlikeness is part and parcel of the Christian journey, so we attend to the house of the Lord with an eye to both form and function, beauty and reverence, the practical and the aesthetic.
I know you will enjoy these enhancements as they unfold.
Now, get outside as you can, talk a walk, tend to flowers, cultivate a garden, and the interior life of prayer and thanksgiving for God’s good gifts to us, including the fellowship of his church!
In the family,
Fr. Chris