Our beautiful church building continues to give us joy as well as repair and budget challenges.  The trustees and staff have several maintenance and improvements projects in the works for 2025.  

1. Sanctuary lighting: Sanctuary lighting improvements for 2025 will be the chancel lighting. The lighting on both the ceiling and wall of the chancel are both extremely bright and generate a lot of heat. Because of the high cost of the specialty lift equipment needed to reach the ceiling, the estimate exceeds the dedicated sanctuary improvement funds. We are gathering information and estimates to see if replacing only the wall lights would be feasible, both for our budget and for our desired results.
2. Stained-glass windows: The south and north stained-glass windows received only minor repairs in-place with the 2009 work. They are both in need of more comprehensive conservation. We are consulting with structural engineers as well as the stained-glass conservationists who did the restoration of our windows in 2009 to prioritize and plan for work in 2025.
3. Water mitigation: You’ve likely noticed the plaster and paint degradation along the east wall of the lower level, again. Regarding the ground slope on the east side of the building is the next step in decreasing the probability of water damage in the future. The plaster repair of the music and childcare walls will be on hold until the regrading is completed. We are planning regrading work for this summer.
4. South door accessibility: Electric door openers are needed to improve accessibility at the south/alley entrance. We’ve received a grant of $2,500 from the St. Paul Jaycees to help cover part of the cost. We are working on updating bids for this work.

For further information about the building updates, please contact a trustee: Carole Anderson, Aaron Anderson, and Angela Wolf Scott or Sharon Fields, Associate Minister of Executive Operations, sfields@hamlinechurch.org.