It is important that there be open communication throughout the congregation as we move through the process of meeting Goal 2.1 from the Strategic Plan adopted by the congregation in September 2003, "To provide a church facility that will fit the needs of a growing, vibrant and dynamic congregation." As the Facility Planning Team talks with people there are a few questions that we have been hearing over and over again. We welcome further dialogue on any of them. We have asked Rev. Susan to offer some reflections on each question:

We love our church. We have wonderful memories of children baptized, Christmas concerts, grandchildren married, loved ones buried. It is our faith home and is dear to us. As with any home, there comes a time when updates, repairs and changes need to be made.

The sanctuary part of our building is 55 years old. The upper hall part of our building is 45 years old. Over the last few years, the church has begun showing its age in many ways. Just as running a business or a farm has changed dramatically in the past 55 years, so the way we use our church building to carry out our mission and ministry has changed. In the past few years, the church board noticed that they were receiving many requests concerning the building. The board decided to recommend to the congregation that we develop an overall plan for the building rather than dealing with these issues one by one. Some of the concerns that have been raised:

• Heating issues. Some parts of the building get no heat while others are overheated. Our furnaces are old, not energy efficient and sometimes don’t work.
• The UCW (United Church Women) would like to have a kitchen on the main floor, so that they can serve funeral teas and other functions in the upper hall. The lower hall is not easily accessible for those in wheelchairs or for those who have difficulty negotiating stairs.
• When the church was built, technology such as photocopiers, computers, faxes, etc. were non-existent. Now they are a part of our every day life. We do not have adequate wiring or space for these items.
• Our youth have been asking for a space for many years now. We keep bumping them around from room to room, but they have yet to have a space that truly welcomes them.
• The bell tower is rotting out and needs attention.
• Two ministers and a secretary are now using office space, which was originally designed for one minister. As well, this office space often becomes storage place for items that need to be locked away for safe keeping. Soundproofing is also an issue.
• The choir seats can only hold 24 people, which discourages more from joining the choir. The Family Choir is crowded on that platform when they sing in worship.
• Our musicians continually struggle with the awkwardness of the piano and organ being located on different sides of the platform.
• The shingles need replacing on both sections of the building.

These are just some of the items that have come to the board’s attention concerning our facility.

God does not want us to do extraordinary things.
God wants us to do the ordinary things extraordinarily well.

As we talk together about what needs to be done with our building, each of us can expect to feel many different emotions: anxiety, excitement, concern, anticipation, frustration, hopefulness, anger, joy, guilt, pride, etc. Memories might begin surfacing; some joyful, some sad and some frustrating. This building has been the place of many important occasions in our lives, and so there can be feelings of grief as we begin to talk about changing our building in some way. There can also be feelings of fear because, at this point, we do not know what the final outcome will be. It is important that we work with each other respectfully as we go through this process, making room for everyone’s ideas, feelings and concerns. We expect everyone will continue to use Holy Manners throughout this process.

People may remember the time when our sanctuary was filled to overflowing, the balcony and back room full and chairs in the aisles. With that in mind, it is hard to believe that we are at capacity in our sanctuary right now. The reality for 2005 is that we can not expect our Sunday attendance to grow with the space we have right now. Here are the reasons based on research done by the Alban Institute, a group respected for its congregational research:

• In the past, people came to church because that was what one expected to do on a Sunday morning. We now compete with many other activities on Sunday morning. People are making choices about which place will be the most comfortable and most enjoyable to go.
• In the past, people naturally would sit closer together in the pew as neighbours, friends and extended family in a close-knit community. Seating was based on about 18 inches per person in a pew.
• Now most people do not feel comfortable sitting as close together as they once did. Seating is now based on 30 to 36 inches per person in a pew. At weddings, funerals and Christmas Eve, people will sit closer together because they are highly invested in being present for that single occasion. On a regular Sunday many people want their space. That means that if you look around on a Sunday morning you will usually see 4 or 5 people in a pew, and occasionally 6. The capacity of the main floor of our sanctuary based on this formula is about 120-130 people.
• Newcomers, as well as long time attendees, want to feel connected and comfortable. They want to get to know the people they are worshipping with. While some of us enjoy sitting in the balcony or the backroom, neither place is connected with the main body of the congregation and it is difficult to see and to sing along with the congregation from these spots. These "disconnected" spaces are not considered when estimating the seating capacity of a sanctuary.
• Alban Institute research shows that when you are regularly at 80% of your capacity you will not increase attendance. This is likely the reason that our Sunday morning attendance has not increased at the same rate as the town’s increase in size.
• The every Sunday seating capacity of our congregation would be 80% of 120-130 people or 96-104 people including adults, teens and children. We have reached this capacity most Sundays.

A second Sunday worship service would not address the issues connected with our building named in question #1. It would address seating capacity for worship but it is not an easy solution. A second worship service is a costly endeavour for a congregation and would require a clear choice by the congregation that they are willing to invest their time and energy in a second service.

Basically, having 2 worship services means having 2 congregations using the same facility and the same infrastructure in terms of board and committees. For our congregation to begin a 2^nd Sunday morning worship service, we would need to be committed to dividing into 2 groups who would worship separately and provide the people resources for each service. We would need to negotiate the times for these two services (9:00 and 11:00 or 9:30 and 11:30 or ???)

We would need two sets of greeters, two sets of readers, two sets of sound people, two sets of musicians and so on. We would need to decide if we would have a choir at both services or only at one service and then which one. We would need to plan Sunday School or some type of children’s activities for both services. Would our beloved Soup and Bun be held after the second service? What would people from the first service do and where would they gather as the 2^nd service people start arriving?

We would also need a larger entry way to allow for two sets of people coming and going. On Christmas Eve, we manage 3 services because the building clears out within 5 minutes as people have other activities to attend. On Sunday morning, people want to visit and to plan for activities and so might be around for up to an hour. We also would need to juggle parking to allow for two sets of people coming and going.

The ministers would have the easy job if the same service was repeated, but if the congregation desired two different styles of worship, then it would require more ministerial time for worship planning and sermon preparation.

When the Facility Planning Team discussed the possibility of two services, one comment was, "But I want to be with everyone. There is more energy in worship that way."

As we continue to respond to our growing community, sometime in the future we will need to plan for a second Sunday morning service. (Note: we already have a 2^nd worship service that happens on Wednesday evenings.) To have the people power to begin a 2^nd Sunday service, we would need a regular Sunday attendance of about 250 or more at one service.

Parts of our church were built before most accessibility issues were being named. A lift installed on the staircase does allow access to all three levels of our church. However, as we listen to people we have discovered that there are many who are not comfortable using the lift.

• The UCW have found that some people do not attend funeral teas served in the basement because they can’t negotiate the stairs and they do not feel comfortable on the lift.
• Rev. Susan and Rev. David are often told by church people that they will not have their funerals in the church, even though they would prefer to, because they don’t want to create difficulty for their friends who find climbing stairs difficult.
• There are people who don’t come to church because they cannot climb the stairs. Others struggle up the stairs rather than use the lift, even if the lift has been offered.
• Thanks to a few hardworking and determined individuals we now have accessible washroom facilities. However, these are not on the same floor as the sanctuary, making it difficult for a person in a wheel chair or with a walker who might need to use the washroom during a worship service.

Take a moment to imagine yourself at a point in your life when you might be finding it more difficult to walk, using canes or in a wheelchair. Think carefully about how you would feel waiting for someone to be found to run the lift, then riding the lift and flipping around the corner at the entry way level. Ramps work well for those in wheel chairs. Imagine walking up a long ramp with canes or a walker. We want our congregation to be a place of help, home and hope for every person who chooses to worship with us. We want to respect the dignity of each person and make all of our spaces easily accessible for those with varying physical challenges.

Sometimes it is cheaper to renovate. Sometimes it is cheaper to rebuild. The important thing is that we end up with a facility that supports the mission and ministry of our congregation in the community of High River. We have a wonderful opportunity to create a facility that will be a gift to our congregation, to our community, to our downtown area and to the next generations. By dealing with the problems we face in our facility now, we avoid passing those problems on to people 5, 10 or 25 years down the road. In the past 120 years, our congregation has called 7 different buildings home. Previous generations have made the decisions of renovating, building new and adding-on as appropriate to the mission and ministry of the congregation at the time. It has been said over and over by this congregation, "We have not been afraid to risk; and those risks have worked well for us."

As we work with the architect and with input from the congregation, we trust that the answer will be clear about whether it is better stewardship of our resources to renovate what we have, to build new, or to do some combination of the two. The congregation will have final say on such a decision. Whether we renovate or re-build, we need to remember that we can have a facility that has the things we love about our present church…the bell tower, the open beams and, of course, the stained glass windows. At the congregational gathering on October 31^st, 2004, the question was asked, "What do you value most about our present church?" The first answer given, "The people!" That is our most valuable asset.

We don’t know. We are gathering input from every group that is part of the congregation as well as from our user groups and from individuals. We are considering "green" options. We are interviewing architects. The architect will work with the Facility Planning Team and with congregational groups to develop an initial plan for our facility that best meets the stated needs for mission and ministry. This initial plan will be brought to the congregation for approval, possibly as soon as Spring 2005. As a congregation, we will decide whether we will proceed with simple renovations, more extensive renovations/additions or building a new facility.

The board is in process of establishing a team of people who will look at the various ways that we can fund this project including grants and loans that might be available to us and fundraising within the community. The greatest task of the team will be to help people in our extended congregation consider how much they can generously and appropriately give to the project. If you have suggestions of people to help on this team, please refer their names to Bruce Masterman (652-3750)

This is a decision that we will make together as we move through this process. Both have advantages:

• Pews offer the beauty of wood, create better acoustics and give a feeling of warmth to the sanctuary. They remind us that we are in a space that is set aside for worship.
• Chairs offer flexibility for a variety of worship services and allow more space to be created at the front of the sanctuary for concerts and programs. In reference to question #3, more people can be seated on chairs in the same area than in pews because a chair clearly defines each person’s space. Chairs designed for worship spaces have pockets for hymnbooks and hook together to stay in place. Having some chairs with arms makes it easier for those who find it hard to stand-up from a pew.
• Some people find pews more comfortable while others find chairs more comfortable. If we needed to purchase seating, chairs are less expensive to buy than pews.

• Chair of the Board: Bruce Masterman (652-3750)
• Ministers: Rev. Susan or Rev. David (652-3168)

• Facility Planning Team:

Chair: Joy Duncan (652-7870)

Al Buehler
Art Cave
Dawn Giles
Ayla Graham
Blair Gordon
Wally Kemp
Helen McIntyre
Jo Parsons
Murray Williamson