Our hard working Vestry

The Vestry is the corporate board for the parish entity, as well as the leadership team in discerning ministry opportunities for the future.

Wednesday night the Vestry met, and we spend a LONG time working on our upcoming projects. We have been given matching grant possibilities for 5 projects as a part of two programs: Surface Parking Lot beautification, and Facade Improvements. Our five projects are 1) removing old trees and re-landscaping the garden edges along the parking lot, 2) new safety protective glass for our stained glass windows at St. John's, 3) awnings over three entryways to the Church, 4) restoration of the Woodward Avenue retaining wall, and 5) a new sign.

The sign project is the one that is going to take the most work, since it will be a very visible representation of the parish for years to come. The committee has been working hard at developing specs and has worked with two sign companies to begin some drawings. The Vestry tonight approved some basic design ideas, but much still needs to be hashed out before final approval can be given by the Vestry (and it must also be approved by the DDA).

The real catch is that a portion of the work must begin by March 11th, and all of it must be completed and billed by May 31st! Churches and Vestries don't usually work that fast, and when you combine the City of Detroit's permit and licensing requirements....you are talking about a lot of work to be done in a short period of time! But I think we are up to the challenge.

A special thank you to John Les Callett for writing the grant proposal for us and seeing it through to its awarding, and to Jr. Warden Andy Baetz for coordinating the sign committee and overseeing (with Sr. Warden Ralph Babcock) the entire project.

And of course...we could use some help with the additional funding.......