Dear Parishioners and friends,

Vacation time is over. Though Autumn doesn’t officially begin until September 23 rd , it always seems like the Summer ends on Labor Day when we re-adjust to school schedules. Welcome back to “normal” life.

Here at the church, we’ve been working quietly, but intensely, throughout July and August, right up to the Labor Day weekend. As you may know, our main source of income comes not from our collections, but from the rental of the community center and theater. Keeping that area in top notch shape is important. So, we made some important upgrades in the theater and the surrounding halls. We replaced all the original theatrical lights with LED’s. These computerized lights can change color with a twist of a knob, a great upgrade from the old lights that needed to have scrims placed over each light to change the color. These lights also give off very little heat, unlike the old ones. This will cut back on our rising electric bill. We also replaced the sound system connecting it to the computer system. This will be a big plus for our musical rentals. We also painted the floor beneath the seats and repaired broken seats.

In the halls surrounding the theater we’ve replaced the flooring, which was beginning to sag in places. The floors were rebuilt and covered with ceramic tiles that look like wood. They’re easy to clean and maintain. While we had the floors torn up we replaced the original steam return pipes beneath these floors. These hundred-year-old pipes served us well. Hopefully, their successors will be as resilient.

The subterranean work of re-setting the three sets of stairs on Lexington Avenue continues. We’ve called in engineers several times as the work proceeded. It’s a delicate and slow process. The work continues.

We’ve sprung three leaks above the windows of the dome. We’re making plans to scaffold the exterior of the dome to inspect it, and repair and point wherever it’s needed. We’re hoping that we can take advantage of the scaffold by linking it to the re-placement of the exterior lighting fixtures. This is an unplanned and serious job. The scaffold will cost $65,000. We’ll have a realistic proposal for the pointing after the dome has been inspected.