Update Needed

The Fulfilling the Vision proposal included a number of building improvements that were widely anticipated, such as repairing the steps at the Mayfair entrance to the narthex. It did not—not explicitly, anyway—include other maintenance and enhancement projects that many of us would like to see. (See, for example, my post “Fulfilling the Vision, Part 2.”) While taking pictures of the banners on the front lawn yesterday—see “Lawn Signs”—I was reminded that there is a bronze plaque on the front of the building that needs updating.

A number of people have mentioned to me that we have never inserted a nameplate into the bronze tablet for our current rector. There is clearly more wrong with it than that, however. Our forebears realized that the parish rector would change from time to time, but they apparently failed to recognize that services and service times might also change. Such details are not cast in stone and should therefore never be cast in bronze.

It should be obvious—was it not obvious to the capital campaign committee?—that our bronze tablet needs to be fixed, and not by chiseling off the text as was seemingly attempted in the past. No, I’m afraid we need professional help. It may be that our current plaque is hopeless, and a new one will have to be manufactured, but I would hope that we could modify what we have, if only for tradition’s sake. (Admittedly, one could make a case for a new plaque that leaves off the rector entirely. The rector changes but the Lord abides.)

I suspect that the COMMUNION, MORNING PRAYER, and CHURCH SCHOOL lines can be removed by a foundry. The space between the two horizontal rules will then need to be filled with something. I suggest adding a bronze medallion in the space, either of the St. Paul’s dove or of the Episcopal Church shield. In the latter case, the medallion can perhaps be painted or enameled.