Tues, 19 Oct, 2021

Six Days of Homecoming—Day Two

Buildings and Grounds

This is the second installment in a six-part series around the theme of Homecoming. While our sanctuary has been open for our Rite I congregants since early June, our Rite II service has continued to be held in the idyllic gardens of the Goodwin Mansion on the grounds of Strawbery Banke through these early weeks of autumn. It is with deep gratitude, eager anticipation, fervid preparation and prayer, and a whole lot of hard work that we enter this week of Homecoming. We acknowledge that, although not all who worshipped with us previously for Rite II will be returning to our beautiful Church On The Hill, we hope that through the voices of these individuals and teams we amplify this week, we can all feel the joy in returning our Rite II service to the sanctuary, the joy in Coming Home.

The last time we had consistent in-person Rite II services happening at St. John’s, we were fresh off a miraculous pre-Christmas emergency boiler replacement, still operating under the old lighting system, unable to welcome mobility-impaired parishioners and visitors, and the only way you could worship with us was in-person. Since the doors to SJC were closed on March 15, 2020, a lot has changed, and today’s reflection will feature two significant upgrades to our physical space:

The first being our in-progress construction of Roberts Hall, a fellowship hall addition which also features a connector between Thaxter Hall and the sanctuary, as well as an elevator which will help those in-need be conveyed from the Thaxter Hall basement up to the main floor, where they will cross into the new connector, and over into the Sanctuary without setting foot outside. The second being our also in-progress renovation of a portion of the choir loft which is being redesigned into an audio/visual control booth to house and support our new live streaming technology and hardware, which will enable us to bring the high-quality and engaging SJC worship experience out into the world via the internet for any and all who cannot be with us physically.

Part I: Roberts Hall, the elevator and stairlift, and the connector.

Reggie Baird, our fearless leader of building and grounds, takes us on a tour of the construction progress of Roberts Hall, and all the ongoing renovations required to support this important upgrade. [watch Reggie's video tour]

Part II: The A/V Control Booth upgrade, and a life lived in stride with the forward march of time at SJC.

Jim Wakefield has been a parishioner of St. John’s Episcopal Church since the mid-nineteen sixties. He began attending SJC after meeting his future wife Sandra, whose family already attended, and a few years into their courtship were married right here at St. John’s. Throughout his time as a member of this church, Jim has contributed his time and talents in many ways, including being a Lector, an Usher for 30 years, a 4-term member of the Vestry, a member of the finance committee, the stewardship committee, and the erstwhile maintenance committee.

Jim has created some iconic elements in our spaces, some that you’ve undoubtedly seen countless times, but perhaps, if you’re like me, never knew the story behind, or how they came to be. For example, he built the sign which hangs on the front of Thaxter Hall. He built the shadowbox that sits on the front of the lectern and holds a piece of the cornerstone from the old church. Jim built the stand that lifts the reserve sacrament in the side chapel, and he has contributed several rounds of renovation efforts to the old Economy Shop down in the church basement.

Since his retirement from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 2003, Jim has been brought in on some special projects, including the construction of the safe encasements that were installed in the sacristy after the church was robbed on Shrove Tuesday, 2019. Most recently, no doubt as a result of his excellent and meticulous craftsmanship on that project, Jim was invited to help us with the construction of our new Audio-Visual Control Booth which is in the beginning stages of construction up near the choir loft in the balcony.

When discussing the sacristy safe project, Jim recalled, “Father Stevens asked me why I wanted to do it, and I said ‘Because I wanted it done right,’ and he got a big kick out of that.” Furthermore, he goes on to say, “I wanted it done in keeping with the architecture, and I wanted it to be done so that when I’m finished, you won’t ever know that it hadn’t always been here, and that’s the way it came out. And so that’s why he asked me to do this [the new A/V Control Booth project in the choir loft], and again I was afraid that somebody [else] would not have the feelings for St. John’s and the old church that I have.”

How lucky are we as a parish that we have people not only possessing of the skills and experience necessary to know how to map out a job like this from start to finish, but who also have the institutional memory of how this place has changed over the years (which, to this editor feels pretty important to take time to document that from time to time), and most importantly people who care enough to see it done right? How lucky are we? Is it luck at all, or are we simply fortunate enough to be part of a body of people who bond together over the idea that we must put in what we expect to get out of this place? That love, time, care, money that we invest in SJC, it goes an awfully long way to making the lives of those around us better, and we in turn are better for it, too.