Time capsule from 1971 - Rector's Rambling for April 15, 2018

Last weekend I was chatting with the demolition crew, who casually asked me, “where would you like the time capsule we found behind the date stone on the office building?”  Time capsule?  We had no idea there was one in there!

Today those items, inserted in the wall of the office building in May of 1971, are on display in the undercroft.  What an exciting find of eclectic items placed in there almost 50 years ago.  The largest piece is a entire copy of the Sunday Detroit News from May 2, 1971.  Other items include 1928, 1892, and 1789 editions of the Book of Common Prayer, our 1959 Centennial Anniversary book, a photo from the groundbreaking of the office building, newspaper articles about the parish from 1969 and 1970, including a photo of the current kitchen newly constructed, some  old interior and exterior photos of the church, vestry minutes, financial reports and bank statements, national and diocesan church newspapers, and even a copy of the TV Guide.

Our neighborhood was quite different in 1971 than it is today.  In fact, those dedicated parishioners could not have foreseen that, in the next 15 to 20 years, things would get much worse before they would start to get better.  And even then, it would be 30 years before a baseball stadium would open next door to begin the revival of the neighborhood.

By September the new building should be on the way toward completion, and Bishop Gibbs will be making his last “official” visit to St. John’s.  While he is here we can have him bless a new cornerstone, where we can insert the original items AND put together new items to be added to it.  If you look at the church cornerstone at the base of the bell tower, you will see that the west side has the original date of 1860 on it, and the north side has a date of 1937 when the tower was reassembled after the building was moved 60 feet for the widening of Woodward.  We read from our 100th Anniversary book that they opened the original cornerstone at that time and then inserted new items in there as well.  On the new building we can use the original 1971 stone on one side and a 2018 stone on another.

Fifty years from now others can discover what we have left for posterity.