Summer time brings a little disruption to most folks schedules and routines. Time off, social events, time spent outside enjoying the great outdoors, draw us away from the patterns that dominate most of the year. 

In case you have been away and missed a bit of what has been happening here at St. George’s this summer, I wanted to write a note to bring you up to speed. There have been a fair amount of work around the property, but there is also some progress to report on the expansion of the carved outdoor Nativity.

We have been able to address some outside projects on the property this summer. We have such a wonderful property and beautiful church, but parts have definitely been showing their age.

Firstly, we have addressed  some of the roofing issues this summer. A patch was made to the large flat roof over the hall, foyer, lounge, and office. This seems to have addressed the leak that has been damaging our ceiling tiles in the hall and lounge. The same company that patched the large roof is working on a quote to fix the drainage issue of the tower roof. The good news is that we seem to have a few more years from the large flat roof.

Secondly, Summer is hot and there are definitely days when the air-conditioning in the hall is a true blessing. To help us keep cooler in the church, where we do not have air-conditioning, the Altar Guild kindly purchased four new floor fans that have been a relief during services.

Thirdly, our projectors in the church have been showing signs of needing replacement. Bad pixels have been growing in number causing white and black spots to appear on the screens. Again, a generous donor, Lynn Muir-Wheeler, has stepped forward to help. New projectors have been found and should be installed soon. 

Number four on the list, two trees were removed earlier this month. Since the major ice storm in 2013, we have had a number of trees that never recovered and have slowly died. The two trees that were removed may also have been disrupted by the repaving of the parking lot. 

The last property item is our old pioneer cemetery. The first burial there was in 1955 but around 1900 the town ended the use of pioneer cemeteries and directed burials to the new official cemetery Greenwood. In the 1970’s before the parish hall was built the stones were gathered together and placed in a concrete pad. Unfortunately in the mid-80’s many of stones were vandalized and broken. Over the past year enough donations were made toward their repair that St. George’s could finally undertake some repairs, although not all the stones are repairable. Those repairs are currently underway. 

The final item to update you on is the expansion of our carved nativity display. With the generousness of a number of St. George’s parishioners and a significant gift from Joanna Alchin we have commissioned Robbin Wenzoski to continue the work he did after carving Jesus. Mary, and Joseph. Robbin has completed much work on the three wisemen and will be carving a shepherd, a lamb, and an angel in time for a December 1st dedication. 

As I said there has been a lot happening this summer at St George’s. 

Remember that if you are on social media I do post short updates on Facebook and Twitter regularly so that is a great way to stay up to date on many of the happenings here at St. George’s.