What Should We Do? Renovate, Build or Close...

Ronnie has written a very thoughtful comment that you will find in its entirety under my first entry below. She brings up 3 important questions that we should be looking at. Here they are:

1. If we decide to renovate the church, will we be able to repay the loan? We are a small parish with many members on fixed incomes and few young people to carry on.

2. Should we sell the present church, rectory and land so we can build elsewhere? One of the possibilities is to build on diocesan land formerly occupied by old St. Joseph's Church in Jackson Ward.

3. Should we disband the parish and go elsewhere?

Please take the time to tell us what you think we should do.

Housekeeping Details

Just to let everyone know that if duplicate comments are accidently posted, I will remove one of them. It sometimes happens and it did so today. You will see a removed comment on one of the previous messages.

What about the Catholic Virginian?

Now that the Times-Dispatch has published an article about St. E's, what about the Catholic Virginian? Can someone give an update about that?

Michael Paul Williams' Times-Dispatch Article

Just in case you missed the article about St. E's ceiling collapse, here is the the link to it.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149191786577&path=%21news&s=1045855934842

Unfortunately, the picture in the newspaper was not included in the online article. From an update given at Mass today, we have so far received donations of over $1000!

I'm not sure how long this link will be active so if you want to keep a copy of the article, you should save it to your computer or print it out.

It's Official!

I spoke with Fr. Andrew this morning to make sure that there would be no objection to this blog. He said he had no problem with it. I was glad to hear that. Now I will place a blurb in the bulletin next week so that all of you church members can read and comment.

It's all up to you if this will be a successful venture or not. All you have to do is to click "Comments" under each article you want to reply to. A box will pop up and you can write your comments and then use the anonymous option if you don't want to use your real name. You do not have to sign up as a blogspot member.

I don't intend to advertise the blog outside the parish community. This will be like a parish newsletter. I can add photos of parish activities if you have some to place online. You can also write an article about parish activities and I will be glad to post it as a blog article. Just let me know.

Mary Ann Allen
plantation.geo@yahoo.com

What happened after the ceiling fell!

What a shock it was to learn that day in August, that our church ceiling had tumbled down! We should have realized that it could happen any time after we watched the the cracks travel across overhead the past couple of years. Thank goodness, no one was in the building when it happened. We can certainly be grateful that no one was hurt.

I've decided to start a blog for St Elizabeth's. It will be open for our parishioners use only; because it might be a good thing for us to talk about our parish and what will happen to the church building. This will also be a place to exchange ideas on what to do that will be best for our parish community. Should we sell the land and buildings? Should we renovate? What are our options?

Please make comments and suggestions. Here's your opportunity. Let's hear from all of you and let's make this blog our parish voice.

Comments can be anonymous or can be signed with a nickname or your real name. The most important thing is to let your voice be heard.