Future Together
This past week my brood and I have been busy working on our bluestone driveway. It has been nine years since we have done any serious maintenance on it, and I probably waited two years too long. We have a long driveway that winds down a hillside and it has taken many hours of family indenture and 24 tons of bluestone to get the driveway back into beautiful condition. For years Amanda and I dreamed of paving the driveway so that the kids could ride their bikes and scooters on it. Yet, some dreams remain a dream, as the cost to pave was ten times that of family labor and a few truckloads of material. Even so, the hard work is satisfying, and we are all taking pride in the results.
As I have shoveled load after load of gravel, I couldn’t help but think about Emmanuel and the future of our parish. The Century Project has been an enlightening exercise for our parish. The work done this spring will help shape our untold future. Will we be bold and undertake a major capital improvement or addition project? Will we be visionary and build a church to meet the needs of a parish in 2050? Will we repurpose and reimagine existing facilities? Will we take a more conservative route and embrace the status quo? Instead of building and expanding on our current campus, will we, instead, manage growth by seeding a new Episcopal church here in the Sandhills?
I was searching for Michelle Kaiser’s e-mail address this week when I came across some correspondence from 2011 which included the campus master plan and images developed to meet the burgeoning needs of the parish and the school. Michelle was the Senior Warden then, and the parish was about to embark on what was supposed to be an exciting capital improvement project. The result would have included the construction of a new church, with a lower level that would have had eight brand new classrooms and two offices for the Episcopal Day School. Also included were new on campus parking lots. Later phases would have expanded the Parish Hall, created a new childcare center, a new classroom building for Episcopal Day School in the location of the current play field, and the repurposing of the existing Episcopal Day School education building into a parish administration building. A lot of energy went into that visioning process. Seeing the plans and the concepts some 14 years later is still exciting and it demonstrates that the spatial problems and limitations of our campus – church and school – have been an unresolved concern for many decades now.
It was the interior images of a new church dreamed in 2011, as seen attached to this article, that drew me from the Arizona desert to the pines of the North Carolina Sandhills. Politics, an economy in recession, and I would argue some level of fear, halted the transformation of a vision into a reality. No doubt, the parish weathered some very challenging years. Yet, God’s providence means that everything happens for a reason, both the big things and the small, both good and evil, both the successes and the failures. As Ephesians reminds us, ultimately this is for a good reason, for in providence God is working out all things according to the counsel of His perfectly good will.
As Emmanuel charts its future through the work of the Century Project, will the decisions address short term needs, like the pebbles in my driveway, or will the efforts yield more permanent, long-term solutions? There isn’t a wrong answer, but today I feel that Emmanuel is like the 8-year-old boy I once was, standing on the edge of the high diving board, looking down at the blue water below, a bit scared and a bit excited to jump into the pool. In that moment I had a decision to make, as does Emmanuel. Either go back down the ladder to the comforts known and appreciated, or take a leap of faith, and dive into the metaphorical waters of baptism. I can report that I did the latter, and I will never forget the exhilaration and reward. That day, I became a different person, forever walking forward with a new courage and experience.
Together we walk in faith. Together we grow the Kingdom of God. Together we recognize the vastness of God’s abundance, grace, and love. Together we worship. I hope you will join The Emmanuel Choir, Choristers, and guests, this Sunday at 5:00 P.M. for a service of Choral Evensong. The choir will premiere a new choral anthem by esteemed English composer Bob Chilcott, set to the Samuel Crossman text, My song is love unknown, commissioned by John and Carolyn Hatcher in celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary and in loving memory of their son, Jay. This offering of Evensong will conclude the musical programmatic year. A sherry reception will follow. I hope you will join us. All are welcome.
Dr. Homer A. Ferguson III
Organist/Choirmaster