As you know, last Thursday, June 19, we had the second Town Hall Meeting dealing with a project that we have been discussing regarding what to do with our old church building. Based on input from those meetings and subsequent consideration by your Parish Council and Finance Committee, we have made a collective decision to go forward with the renovation of the building.

Here are the reasons why this decision was reached:

• First, restoring the old church building will enable us to expand the programs and services that we offer to you, our parishioners—partly by use of the space in that building and partly by freeing up some of the space in our parish center. It costs us about $30,000 per year in insurance and minimal air conditioning expenses just to maintain that building even with very rare usage. We believe the best use of our resources and the needs of this parish are better served by restoring that building as soon as we can.

• Second, we can borrow the funds necessary for this project from the Diocese at a very low interest rate as part of the upcoming Alive in Christ campaign. We will be expected to repay this loan from proceeds generated by our participation in that campaign. However, since some of the new programs that we visualize will also generate revenue, we believe we can repay the loan, enhance our parish assets and improve the services we provide to our parishioners.

• Third, informed people tell us that construction costs will probably never be any lower than they are right now. Next year, such costs will likely increase.

• Finally, Blessed Trinity Parish is part of Wave Two of four Waves of the Diocesan-wide Alive in Christ Capital Campaign. All 80 parishes and 10 missions are participating in this Campaign. We will be participating in this campaign even if we do not borrow the funds to reclaim the old church building. Putting it off will only cost us more in the long run.

You will be hearing more about this project as the plans take shape over the upcoming weeks and months.

To those of you who wish to have a voice in the project, I encourage you to contact me personally. We are looking for a few parishioners with requisite expertise to form a Building Committee.

Please take a minute and read the insert in this week’s Bulletin for a report on the Town Hall Meeting of June 19.