Blue Sky Plans for COTM

Quite a while ago I wrote on this blog about the "Blue Sky" project. Since even before I came there has been talk about some renewal of the physical church plant. Some of the ideas proposed are relatively minor cosmetic improvements (replacing the chairs and repainting the sanctuary, for example). But I was encouraged to look a bit beyond that to see if there are other architectural things we might to do to make our place more inviting, missional, and theologically expressive of the Gospel.

So down the road we went. Now we have a bunch of different related projects that form a kind of wish list. I doubt we'll do all of them, but it is worthwhile talking about things that seem out of reach, too. So... Here's what we've come up with so far...

1. New Chairs
2. Repaint the Sanctuary
3. Replace the Carpets in the Chancel, Lounge, and Sunday School Rooms
4. Update Exterior Signage and Landscaping
5. Paint the Murals in the Sunday School Room
6. Renovate the Chancel
7. Enhance the Entrance to the Church
8. Add A Baptismal and Memorial Garden on the South Side of the Church

As I said, we know it's unlikely that we'll suddenly come upon the cash to do all of these projects, but it's worth exploring what is possible in a clear blue sky of potentials!

New Chairs
Melana has sourced several possible chairs to replace the 1977 Steelcase chairs we currently have. One option is the relatively conventional church chairs now is use at places like SSJD, St. Augustine of Canterbury, etc. They look kind of like this...

Currently, the most important features that people identify are that the chairs should be stackable, have some place to put hymnals, have some way of hooking together, and should be tough enough to take many years' abuse. Sauder has lot of possibilities for this kind of chair.

Melana showed us some other possibilities as well, such as another chair from Steelcase that is a bit updated from what we have now. She is also fond of the Moller Church Chair.

Repainting the Sanctuary
A fairly obvious face-lift thing to do: repainting the interior. Right now it's gray with a whitish accent color. Melana suggests a simplified pallet in which white would dominate. Not just any white, but a specific white that would work just right.

Replace the Carpets in the Chancel, Lounge, and Sunday School Rooms
Melana showed us some samples from Interface, which is a Canadian firm that has led the way in both Green Manufacturing and in using carpet squares laid down much like tile. One of the several advantages of the carpet squares is that if one gets badly stained you can simply pull it up and replace the the one tile. She has ideas about a more fun design for the Sunday School Room and then something more subdued for the lounge and worship spaces.


Update Exterior Signage and Landscaping
Here's where things start to get really interesting. Everybody agrees that we need better signage. The reason that people notice the Hare Krishna Temple across the street and not us is that they have better signage! So check this conceptual drawing out:


A nice big banner to take advantage of the already-existing horizontal pole sticking out from the bell tower. At one time, a giant rainbow flag hung from there--but as we all know the meaning of symbols change over time!

In this one you can see Melana's concept of having some kind of horizontal sign to complement the vertical banner. It would have some kind of permanent element (our name, perhaps) and then some kind of LED element that would replace the function of our current acrylic letters. The cross would remain, and the three elements would be designed to work together like this...

In terms of landscaping, here is a version of the site-plan with Melana's idea drawn over it. The original design is "ghosted" underneath.

In this drawing, Avenue Road runs along the left edge and Dupont is along the bottom edge. The original plans from the 1976 Renovation indicate that much of the steps on the left side of this drawing (the east end of the church) were supposed to be removed, but that was never done. Melana proposes taking out some of those steps and basically cleaning up the lines of the planter beds. This plan would also replace the rotting railroad ties with more attractive stone (probably matching or complimenting the church). Plants going into the bed would be low-maintenance varieties.


Paint the Murals in the Sunday School Room
I've been wanting to spruce up the "Godly Play Room" since I came. Susan Bleasby has developed a marvelous concept for two huge murals on either end of the room. Here they are again...


It's the Kingdom of Heaven on one end and God's Kingdom on Earth on the other end. We would also, of course, replace the florescent tubes in the ceiling with more attractive hanging lights of some kind and replace the carpet.

Renovate the Chancel
Chancel renovation is a bit trickier. From this drawing you can see where Melana and I have gotten so far in our discussions...

So here the the current raised portion of the chancel has been removed and replaced with an oval-shaped platform on which the altar sits. This platform would have a rail for people to kneel for communion. It would be movable (perhaps on locking casters of some kind). So it could be brought out of the corner and into the center of the church, for instance, or simply centered under the stained glass window.

In the drawing Melana also proposed a second platform for the ministers to sit and to hold the Ambo. This is still a work in progress, but it shows how we are trying to make the space more flexible and resolve some of the issues of the current chancel (which is too far into the corner and too angular--the priest ends up facing an unpopulated corner of the room rather than the congregation).

Another important element Melana is thinking about has to do with the two curving walls in the corner behind the altar. She thinks we should creat a subtle light effect by painting the back side of one of the pannels. Light coming in from an existing window would then bounce off the paint and create a color wash on the front side of the other curved wall. (Those who know our church well will understand what I mean). It's a great idea.

Removing the two curved walls would mean abandoning the radial orientation of the church to that corner entirely, which would require redoing the ceiling and a host of other problems. But this chancel idea is definitely worth working on some more...

Enhance the Entrance to the Church

In this plan you see the main entry to the church as it is now, with Melana's proposal superimposed. People enter through the bottom doors, dog leg to the left, then swing around a 90 degree corner to the left and then again to the right (where it gets really narrow). Chief among the problems in that the proper entrance to the church is not clear from the outside of the building. Melana thinks that a nice canopy of some kind would make the entrance unambiguous. (Cf. Rosedale United Church's new glass canopy designed--I believe--by Ian McGillivray). The pink block shows where the canopy could go.

Melana also aligned the two doors and enlarged the area where you make the left into the church. On this drawing the green shows the amount of space currently there for making the turn left, while the aquamarine color shows how her proposed changes would enlarge the space and make for a more proper vestibule.

Add A Baptismal and Memorial Garden on the South Side of the Church
As Melana dreamed about possibilities, she noted an unused portion of land on the south side of the church. She then remembered how I felt a strong need to do something to architecturally emphasize baptism more than the current font allows. What she came up with was a garden in that space with a baptismal pool large and deep enough for adult full-immersion baptism and also a memorial wall with niches for the interment of ashes. Thus baptism and burial are linked (as they properly ought to be) and also baptism is located at the intersection of the church and the world (as it ought to be). The Garden would be screened off from the street, but large enough to have a serene outdoor kind of feeling.

The challenge was then connecting that garden to the church interior. There needs to be sufficient continuity to link the baptismal pool outside with the font inside. There also needs to be a sense that the sanctuary space continues into the outdoor space. So she proposes a set of three door under the already existing three windows on the south side of the church. They would be glass--acoustically and thermally opaque yet visually transparent. She imagines them pivoting on a point a few inches from the inside edge.

This is brilliant. I don't know if we can do it, but my God would it be beautiful! Imagine the feeling of sitting in this little urban oasis with the pool and the burial niches and the gorgeous stone of the church. Imagine doing baptisms out there! I love it.

So...
Now for the practical stuff. We need to introduce these ideas to the congregation. We need to hear people's ideas and develop the the plans further in response. We need to think about costs and scope. Not to mention what kind of permits are required for what kind of change. It's daunting, but exhilarating. Apparently mine is a kind of "go big or go home" kind of ministry moment. I suppose this is what "entrepreneurial ministry" looks like in established Anglican churches. Cool. I can do that.

What I have to be careful about is that this doesn't replace the other kinds of evangelism and mission we are about. I'm very keen to develop some other initiatives. This may cover the "Attractional Evangelism" piece, but I also want to develop program that will help people grow in Discipleship ("Process Evangelism") and found new groups that incarnate God's love in this neighborhood ("Relational Evangelism"). So much to do. I'm praying god will send me more people to help. It's really amazing. Praise be to God. Time for supper...

-t

Enthusiasm

I just got back from a fantastic Parish Council meeting. What made it so great? Since it was the first Parish Council meeting of the the year we had to elect a Chair and do a few other housekeeping items, but the biggest thing was meeting the Parish Architect--Melana Janzen--and hearing her presentation about some of the ideas we've been developing. I'll do another post to lay them all out, but they are fantastic. It's a wish list that includes things like better signage, a cleaned up entryway, and then some really fun projects like creating a baptismal/memorial garden and redoing the chancel. As I said, I'll post some of the sketches when I have a chance tomorrow.

It's really neat to be engaging in a process that creates so much energy and sense of renewal. I'm very happy to see how people get so engaged with these ideas. I'm pleased.

So... More tomorrow....

(Also today--Betsy and I filled 21 large lawn waste bags with stuff we raked up. The lawn looks much better, but it was a lot of work.)

-t

Liturgy and Architecture

I had lunch today with a person very involved at the national level of Anglican Church of Canada liturgy. It was great fun to talk about what's being done in various places and what projects are currently in development and so forth. I'm always up for talking about liturgy! She was particularly interested to hear about the Contemplative Eucharist I've been developing here. But we had our two-hour lunch on the patio at the Pour House and I ended up with a sunburn! Ah, well.

Another highlight of the day was meeting with our architect to talk about what we are going to present to the Parish Council on Monday. The ideas are stellar and all very exciting. It will be interesting to see what others respond to. After that meeting I'll be able to be a bit more open in this blog about what some of these ideas actually are. At the moment it's a bit of a laundry list, but the common theme is renewal and rejuvenation.

Tomorrow morning I'm off to Holy Cross for a check-in with my Spiritual Director. It's a brief trip (I'll be back Saturday), but I find that I can settle into the rhythms of the place almost instantly. So that will be good!

I've been here since 8 AM and won't be finished with my work day until about 9.30pm. I've got a meeting tonight of a local interfaith group.

-t

Architecture

Last week I had a friend of mine who is also an architect come by to give me an informal consult about the church. The further along I go with developing plans for replacing the chairs and repainting the interior, etc., the more aware I become that I'm a bit out of my depth when it comes to things like choosing chairs or picking color schemes.

Looking at the space, she said that she could see what the architects who did the 1976 reconstruction (after the fire) were trying to accomplish and also how their plans didn't always work. She said that the challenge was to go with less, not more. Looking around, it's hard to easily identify the elements that could be removed. For example, the vertical columns near the storage closets don't "work" from an aesthetic point of view, but were obviously necessary to support the weight of the daycare above.

So she's going away to think about it some more and come back to me the outline of a proposal. Once I have that in hand I can begin to bundle the pieces together to make a physical plant renewal plan and start raising money.

Speaking of church architecture, I've decided to go back to the collegiate-style (aka choir style) seating arrangement for Lent. It simply does the work of liturgy (worship and transformation) better than the common layout usually used here.

-t

Mural Project Sketches

Susy came by today and delivered the latest sketches of the children's mural we are planning for the children's education room. These are now at a stage where we feel comfortable sharing them widely, so here they are...



These will go on the West and East ends of the room, respectively. I'm very happy about the progress she has made. If we do this and replace the lights and the carpet, that room will look fantastic! I love the message it sends: kids are important and deserve good things, too. Certainly I can't imagine replacing all the nave chairs and repainting the sanctuary without doing something similar for the Sunday School!

So now I just have to raise some money....
-t

All Saint's, King City

I made a visit to All Saint's, King City, to talk to their incumbent (The Rev'd Nicola Skinner) about their recent painting scheme. They worked with a color expert to repaint the church interiors in very dynamic and interesting way. Here's a picture of the Nave...

One of the interesting and subtle effects was created by using slightly offset colors in adjacent panels--so you'll notice that there are actually two blues and blue greens in the picture here. This is designed to create more sense of movement in the space. This replaced a horrid "dirty cream" color that was originally there. The scheme really compliments the stained glass and has a very warm feeling. The project has been well received by the congregation, and confirms for me that bold schemes are not necessarily controversial. The key is that they function aesthetically. So it makes me all the more eager to bring in a good color expert for our repainting project.

After the tour Nicola and I went out for lunch at the only restaurant in King City, a nice little Greek place with a surprisingly good Souvlaki Sandwich. Turns out that Nicola likes really hot peppers, too, so I'll have to send her a jar of my pickled "peppers of death." These are the hottest peppers I could legally purchase at the St. Laurence Street Farmers Market. I'm still searching for the "The merciless peppers of Quetzlzacatenango...grown deep in the jungle primeval by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum." (After Homer eats these peppers in an episode of The Simpsons he has a vision in which his spirit guide manifests as a coyote with the voice of Johnny Cash.) Anyway, Nicola and I had a good talk about respective churches.

Back at COTM, our weekly Staff meeting sorted out various details. I decided to have the meeting in my office now that's in presentable shape. After that I met with a local nun looking for a place to hold her an Out of the Cold supper for Christmas. She's providing the food, the volunteers, and the guests. All we have to do is unlock and lock the building. Naturally, I'm not going to deny a nun a place to feed the poor!

I'm still not sleeping well. Or, more accurately, I sleep well in the morning, but not at night. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, I suppose. There's just so much work to be done... and yet I want to have a healthy life and that means going home at a decent hour and praying well and meditating and all that. Then there is a whole 'nother part of me that is screaming for attention. At the planning meeting for the Pageant last Sunday I ended up literally dancing around the nave to demonstrate how I imagined Mary might dance during the Magnificat. I need to get out of my head and into my body. I've got a ton of creative energy to release!

Speaking of the pageant, I need to work on the script, now, so I have it for the planning meeting tomorrow....

-t

The Mural Project

As I suspected, I had a great conversation with Susy Bleasby, the mural painter. I took her upstairs to the Sunday Sunday room (AKA "The Godly Play Room") and she was blown away with how big the walls are and how much they lend themselves to this kind of art. Here are pictures of the two walls I have in mind...



Those were taken with a wide-angle lens, so the actual walls look even bigger in person. My initial idea is to have a kingdom of heaven scene on one end (where the doors are) and the kingdom of God on earth on the other wall (where the window is). Susy and then spent time looking at various pieces of visual Christian art that have inspired me through the years. I showed her the vestments that my mother commissioned for my ordinations. I also showed her my copy of the St. John's Bible Gospels. I showed her pictures of the interior of St. Greg's. We talked about the Sistine Chapel and all kinds of cool stuff. She is excited by the possibility of doing something absolutely thrilling....

The price? Depends--she has come up some estimates that will vary according to the complexity of the design (i.e. how long it takes her and her partner to complete). But is probably around $5,000 per wall--so $10k for the whole project. That's actually pretty reasonably IMHO--it's still less than half the price of the piano we are about to buy. I'm also aware of some grants that I can write for that may help.

-t

The Centre for Children's Faith Formation at COTM

Megan and I sat down yesterday to make more progress on our concept of developing a "Centre for Children's Faith Formation" here at COTM. In some ways, this is an extension and elaboration of the work she has been doing here for some years, but as she departs at the end of December, we need to have a plan for what will take her place. There is Diocesan grant money available to support new forms of ministry, and this is a perfect opportunity to develop something really special here at COTM.

Part of the idea is to leverage our strengths: the level of integration children already have in our liturgy, our multidisciplinary approach (drama, dance, and music), and our potential for developing a mutually beneficial partnership with our local seminaries.

So we did some brainstorming and I made some notes. Here's a mind map of what I have so far...


Comments, as always, are welcome...

-t

Bouncy Castle

Check out our Bouncy Castle. We had it set up after church on Sunday to celebrate the beginning on a new church year (as well my first Sunday). The liturgy and the BBQ and the castle went very well. There was a little craziness around some of the liturgy and and the Sunday school, but I was expecting that.

One of the first things I want to address in the liturgy is the way I felt so totally separated and distant from the congregation. The chancel is relatively small and stuffed up in the corner. I'm considering moving the altar down into the "nave" to be closer.

I also have to figure out what to do about ceremonial around the altar--when to bow, genuflect, cross things, etc. This was all very laid out and consistent at SMM, of course, but now it's a new ball game. I went for a relatively "middle" approach on Sunday. Interestingly, the only time I ended up genuflecting was to the children as I went down on a knee so that I could be at their height to give them communion. At the time I thought this was very incarnational and warm and fuzzy. But we definitely need to ramp up the "holiness" factor a bit. Moving the altar down to the nave actually increases both the feeling of intimacy and, paradoxically, the feeling of transcendent holiness. That's because the closer the altar is to the congregation the more of an impression it makes on the consciousness. It also means we won't be cramped for space as we move around it!

Lot of details to coordinate. There is a staff meeting tomorrow and a Corporation meeting on Friday. In preparation for the meeting with Corporation I have to line up the agenda. This is a group that wants to get through items efficiently, so that means doing lots of homework to anticipate questions and answers.

I videotaped my sermon on Sunday, but I haven't had time to edit and post it. The video camera worked great, however, and presents all kinds of new evangelism possibilities. I need to set up a kind of church A/V club. I need to think of an appropriate Biblical name for such a group....

Incidentally, the sound system is not behaving well (of course). Luckily this place doesn't require anything nearly as complex as SMM did. Probably I just need to replace the mics for the time being. I'll be amused to follow the sound system developments at SMM. My prediction is that now that I'm gone it won't be repaired until after Fr. Harold retires. That's not a snipe at him, just a prediction based on the fact that he's swamped with his own projects and probably won't be able to make any headway with this one unless it absolutely stops working. The Building Committee is also looking for fat to trim from the renovation budget...

Now I have to run to ABC (Anglican Book Centre) to get some church stuff--including collars. Collars are finicky beasts that wear out faster than you would expect. One day I'll get the real cotton kind (rather than the common plastic ones).

BTW, our cable box has one of the PVR deals built in. It's a hard drive that can record shows much live a VCR. I've got it set to record all episodes of "Mythbusters" for example. Very cool. I always love a new toy.

-t

Music Meetings...

Today Matthew Tran-Admas, the Director of Music and Liturgical Arts at the Church of the Messiah, and I had lunch at my favorite pub. It was a 3 1/2 hour conversation that ranged over all kids of ground. The upshot is that we are going to get along great and found all kinds of opportunities to pursue. Like many other aspects of the Church of the Messiah, the music program is wide open for adaptation and growth. It's time for some "blue sky" planning projects, which are tremendous fun. It's great to just dream about what is possible. It's all very exciting!

-t

Betsy's Back

Betsy, my wife, has returned from her studies in Ireland. Having her home is great. Funny how in some ways it seems like she was never gone. But in other ways it seems like everything has changed since she left. Maybe I inhaled too many fumes while furiously cleaning the place for two days.

Denise is particularly happy to have Betsy back. She demonstrates this by jumping around and being more talkative than she was a few days ago. She also follows us around from room to room, eager to keep the pack together. Our cat got lonely with me gone most of the day and no one at home to play with.

Last night we celebrated my appointment with a Taco Casserole and very nice bottle of champaign. After we finished it, I put it on a bookshelf next to the bottle that we used to celebrate Betsy's admission to the U of T more than two years ago. Hard to believe it's been that long since we left New Haven to come to Canada.

We've been listening to the new Harry Potter book on Audiobook. This is our tradition when it comes to the Harry Potter books--I've never actually sat down with the actual printed books. It's a good story with plenty of potential as sermon material. Lots of spiritual themes like sacrifice and love and providence.

A couple of pieces of my preparation to go to Messiah are starting to form up. One is to review as much print material as I can handle. Soon I'll be pouring over Vestry Reports and Histories of the parish. I've also got a meeting coming up with the Music Director. I'm thinking of burning a CD for him of some of my favorite songs--we need to familiarize each other with our musical tastes and styles. But I expect to spend much of our first conversation simply talking about church music and what it means to us. In particular, I want to know what makes him really excited about Church music.

I remember when Stephanie Martin first came to SMM and I spent a good deal of time learning about her vision of Church music simply by talking about what we each liked and disliked. We also looked over various hymnals and other resources for ideas. That kind of blue-sky dreaming and musing is a critical kind of exercise to do in collaborative projects like this, I believe, especially when the goal is to create something fresh, exciting, and new. I did something similar with an artist named Jennifer Mitchell whom I've commissioned twice. First she created an Advent-themed Raredos for our side chapel. The second time it was to make a Lent-themed one for the same space. Both were a success and really helped to pull those seasons out of Ordinary Time. Just for kicks, I'll end with pictures of those two pieces...



-t