Welcome to St. Paul’s: Advent I

Anyone approaching St. Paul’s’ front door on Sunday had lots of sights to see. Its being the first Sunday of Advent, there were wreaths with purple ribbons on the front doors:

The wreaths are quite lovely and welcoming. Moreover, the purple ribbon makes people stop and think, since Christmas wreaths generally sport ribbons of other colors.

To get to the doors from Washington Road, however, one had to pass the Refuge sign:

As usual, the sign, which is hard to read from a passing car anyway, was something of a mess. The New Morning sign, which should have been in the background of the above picture, had been damaged by wind and taken down. (I didn’t bother to take a picture of our permanent sign which looked only slightly more decrepit than it did the last time I wrote about it.)

Am I the only one who finds these semi-permanent cloth banners tacky?

A more promising sight was the progress being made on the steps and sidewalk associated with the narthex entrance facing Mayfair Drive:

If this sight isn’t welcoming at the moment, it will be soon. We have waited too long for this much-needed repair.