The Center Piece of the Changes

The picture shows the framing against the sanctuary wall that will house the statues of Mary and Joseph which stood much further out of the sanctuary.

The faming will be covered in a stone tile and the statues will sit in the niches in the middle of each side.

The center wall will be painted a deep rich burgundy with a gold stenciling after the wall has been cleaned again. (You can see the outline of the cross which is a result of smoke damage to the building.)

A true and interesting story:

The cross was mounted to the wall by three brackets. When the cross was taken down from the wall, one had pulled half way out of the wall, the cross was not attached to the second bracket and the final bracket was attached, but half the screws had been pulled out of the wall. As one construction worker said, "That cross was hanging on by a prayer."

Next time anybody asked you why we had a fire at St. Bede tell them, "It was divine intervention, a miracle. If we had not have had the fire, Fr. Carucci might have been crushed to death by Jesus and the cross in the middle of Mass."

While I'm not opposed to taking UP my cross every day, I really don't want the cross to come down on me! What would the Baptist say!

Progress at last!

We have begun to make a great deal of progress on the church restoration.

We will post picture to keep you in the loop as things progress. We will not be "finished" by Christmas, but we are still hoping to able to use the church for the Christmas services.

We are getting there. Thanks for your support.

A Building Permit and workers, at last!

As I mentioned last Sunday, the city has finally issued a building permit which has allowed our contractor to begin working. They have been busy all week. They have removed all the antiquated electrical systems and begun to replace them with state of the art components. (This was the big hold-up with the permit. All the electrical systems had to be brought up to the current building code.) The altar, ambo and baptismal font have been removed along with the old wooden sanctuary floor and the floors are being prepared for tiling.

It’s all very exciting and things are moving very quickly. I know that people are excited, but please remember that the church is an active construction site, so please do not wander in for a look. It is dangerous and you will only slow the progress.

We are still aiming to be back in by Christmas, even if everything isn’t totally complete, but we will have better idea of our completion date next week. Now we actually have something to show you, we will also be posting pictures. Also, by next week we will have some renderings of the project posted in the school for everybody to see.

As always, thank you for your patience and your support.

Sorry for the long silence

Sorry for the long silence on the progress of the church restoration.

I have not had anything concrete to report since the Scriptorium was published, but everyday we have almost had something to report. We have been waiting for the architects to finish the final plans and give us a stamped set of blueprints so that we can get a building permit from the city. They finished the plans today! So finally we can get started with the interior repairs.

As you know there was extensive damage to the roof and the interior, but the main holdup has revolved around some upgrades to the electrical service to the church that were required to bring the building up to code. We all want to be back in the church as soon as possible, but we want to make sure the job is done right.

Everyone has been asking, “When will be back into the church?” That’s a great question, and we should be able to give a more definite answer by the end of next week, but if all goes well we should be back in the church by Christmas.

As always, thank you for your support. Remember that the Church is not a building. It is you and I and together we make St. Bede a welcoming community of faith in action whether we are in the cafeteria or in the church.

God Bless.

Fr. Carucci

Here We Go!

Finally, we have some pictures to share.

Earlier this week we the roofers delivered the planking for the church roof. It is currently being stained inside the church and construction should begin on the roof Monday. If all goes well, they should be finished with the roof in a week.

Other contracts are in Mobile for review and approval and we should be getting the green light on them in the near future. I hope to have much more to share with you once I return on August 11^th. In the mean time enjoy the rest of your summer and try to stay cool.

Progress!!

We have finally made some progress. The insurance company has given the green light to our roofing contractor. They are currently having the roof timbers milled. (The decking is 3 1/2 “ thick tongue and groove pine. You cannot pick that stuff up at Home Depot!) We hope that they will start the roof repairs next week.

The architects are finishing up the specs for the sacristy and the sanctuary and the plan is to have them bid out next week as well.

Once the roof is repaired, then work can begin in earnest. Then we will actually have pictures to show you again!

As always, thank you for your support and patience.

Very Slowly . . .

Very, very slowly, but at this point it seems unavoidable.

Even worse there are no pictures to send!

We are now waiting for the insurance company to approve the roofing contractor. Until that happens “work” cannot progress. In the meantime the cleaning up process has gone as far as possible until the charred ceiling beams are removed.

We have initial estimates on the damage to the vestments and altar linens, and the total is well over $50,000. As you know many of these items are antique and irreplaceable. When we get a final figure we will share it with you. The good news is that a very large portion of the vestments we salvageable.

I want to thanks the lady’s of the Altar Guild and the others who ironed, mended and help the hundreds and hundreds of pieces of linen, lace and vestments. I also want to thank the lady’s of the Dorcas Society who came to me to offer make a backdrop for the altar in the school cafeteria. It has been wonderful to see people step up and get involved.

In cooperation with Service Masters, we have determined that as much of the stains have been removed from the brick as possible. We do not feel that it is sufficient, and we are examining our options to make sure that the interior does not have any charred brick.

We have bids or estimates for:

1. New lights – something not covered by insurance

2. New Sound system – covered

3. New Electrical system – mostly covered

We are expecting bids on a new A/C unit for the church and other code upgrades. We should have them from the architects this week.

We are also consulting with the architects and designers on the materials for the floor covering. A portion of this will also be covered by insurance, but are also looking to fix some of the problems that pre-existed in the sanctuary floor.

The designers and the committee are also looking at the back wall of the sanctuary. We will make some suggestions to warm up that area. We should have some initial ideas to present in the near future.

One of the committee’s tasks as we began this project was to see if there were any other improvements or additions that we wanted to make while the church was closed. This seems to the time for dreaming. It has always been generally agreed that the entry way to the TOO SMALL. The architects have made an initial proposal and the projected price was smaller than the committee expected. As soon as they give us a rendering of their idea, we will share it with you.

I think you will be excited by the possibilities! Thank you for your continued prayers and support during this difficult time.