Welcome (If You’re Going South)

For many months—I have no idea how long—the lamp that illuminates the text on our sign in front of the church has been out. If you pass the church heading south at night, you see “St. Paul’s Episcopal Church” illuminated at the top of the sign, and you can read the weekly worship schedule below it. If you’re traveling north, however, all you can read is “St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.” The area below is dark. I mentioned this to Lou at the same time I offered my ideas about coffee hour. (See “Coffee Hour.”) The sign is as dark today as it was then.

Somewhere along the line, we seem to have concluded that our sign, a lovely custom sign, is (1) ineffective and (2) more trouble than it’s worth. We used to update it frequently, at least weekly. Now, we post the standard weekly schedule and leave it alone. If something special is happening, we either put up a tacky banner or do no advertising at all.

I had to stop by the church today, so I took a close look at the sign, something I had not done in a while. The sign is not in good repair. Besides the lighting problem, parts are missing—one of the Os is just a big white circle, for example—the black backgrounds on which letters are placed seem a bit shopworn, letters are misshapen, and some characters are faked. (Colons are made of pushpins.)

Maybe it’s time to use some of that yellow tape we have around the Mayfair steps around our sign as well.

St. Paul’s sign.

Missing pieces of O and A.

Misaligned characters and pushpins.

Missing (removed?) lock.

South side of sign.