From the Interim Rector - 351 Update - October Manifest
We can now begin to walk down hallways and go into newly constructed rooms. Each week more and more of the interior walls are being completed. We can now begin using one of the interior staircases to move from floor to floor instead of climbing the scaffolding on the 74th Street façade. As you will see from the photos below, the first of the Epiphany historic windows has been installed. There are many more to follow. The large Rose Window that used to reside on the 74th street side of our current church has been cleaned, repaired and installed as the focal point above the Apse and the Altar. In fact, every piece of stained glass that was in our current building has been cleaned, repairs, and will have a home in the new building.
The interior walls in the Nave and Sanctuary are being installed as you can see in the video clip below and will begin getting their finish coats of acoustical plaster and extra rigid gypsum to ensure that when the Bigelow Organ is finished and installed in 2023, the room will have been acoustically tuned by professional acousticians to ensure the best sound, whether spoken word or music.
The majority of architectural features of our current building have been removed and are also being cleaned, repaired where needed and will soon be ready for installation at 351. One of the last items to go will be the Zorowick Doors on the 74th Street lobby. They will become the interior lobby doors at the principal entrance to the church.
When you walk around our current building you may notice some of the wall plaques have not been removed. This was because they are actually carved into the walls of the church and it would have been very costly to remove them. These inscriptions will be reproduced as plaques and will also be installed at 351.
The finish roof of the Nave and Sanctuary is nearly 50% complete. The old shingle roof has been removed and a standing seam metal roof is being installed. Unfortunately, given the location of 351 surrounded, as it is, on three sides by taller buildings, the only ones who will ever see the roof will be our neighbors living on the upper floors of their building – though you may get a glimpse of it from our roof garden if you look over the edge.
Over the next 6-8 months, after what will have been a full 36 +/- months of work, we will be able to stand in the place God led this parish to purchase and renovate 3 years ago and offer our thanksgivings and praise for all God has done and continues to do in our midst. Over these last years I have often been reminded of the Call of Abraham as found in Genesis 12. The call that Epiphany said yes to all those long months ago – long before there was even a whisper of a global pandemic, is not so dissimilar from God’s call to Abraham where God said: "Leave the land you have always known. Go from your homeland to a new land that I will show you. I will bless you. And, I will bless those who bless you.”
As Abraham set out, he and his family he did not know where the journey would end, only that he was to go – trusting that at each point along the way God would be with him. And so God was as he brought him to his new homeland. The journey Epiphany is taking to its new home is so very similar to Abraham’s journey with God. None of us know where this journey of faith will take us beyond an address just up the street. But Epiphany is far more than an address. Far more than a destination. It is in fact the instrument God has chosen and called to fulfill his work in this community. We each know what God requires of us as God’s servants in this place and in this time. We may be leaving one home, even as Abraham and Sarah did, for a new home, yet Epiphany will continue to do as it has always done. As the people of Epiphany, we will continue to do justice, We will continue to love kindness. And we will continue to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8) along all the right pathways for his namesake and in praise of his unending love – a love that continually offers all people a hope and a future.
Faithfully yours,
Roy+
Installation of the historic Rose Window
The Garden Cross prepared for transport
Standing Seam of the Roof
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