A Future of Grace

New furniture arrived for rooms 115 and 126 in the Grace Center. The pieces are on casters so they can be moved around as needed!

Landscaping work will continue in the St. Francis Garden but the new sidewalk is finished and ready for use.

Renovation of the greeting area restrooms is underway.

New flooring installed in the youth room. Grace Center restroom renovation has begun.

Brick work complete on the Grace Center. Parish Office entrance temporarily relocated to side door. St. Francis Garden closed for demolition of sidewalk in preparation for installation of wider, more accessible sidewalk.

New windows installed in the youth room and brick work underway at The Grace Center.

New Grace Center roof installed. Concrete poured for new ramp at the back door.

(Ramp photo taken in January 2024)

Lots of work underway.

Members of the parish gathered outside the Grace Center for a ceremonial ground-breaking following the 10:45 AM service on Sunday, July 9. Work began a few weeks later.

One of several campus improvements included in our ongoing bicentennial campaign was adding niches for two additional columbarium bays. We are happy to report that project is now complete, after the team worked through last weekend to install them.

It is time to (Re)Launch the Bicentennial Capital Campaign!

As you will remember, we held a special forum a few weeks back that laid out the focus points for this reoriented Bicentennial Capital Campaign. We shared how the Building and Grounds and Finance Committees, and the Vestry, all agreed that it was good to focus on a more functional campaign at this point in our common life. We are setting aside the proposed plans on the nave and narthex (with hopes to revisit them soon) in order to highlight key areas of our parish’s life that need attention: Christian Education space for youth and children, bathrooms, office roofing, easier access at key points to the building, and signage. We feel we are well-equipped to focus on these areas since improvements here will enable us to welcome even more to the community for opportunities of prayer, compassion, and belonging.

To that end, you will soon receive a packet in the mail with a brochure and pledge card. I invite you to prayerfully consider how you may share in this work. Especially given continued uncertainties, it felt responsible to streamline our plans at this point in a way that still honored the celebration of two centuries of common prayer.

We are setting a target gathering date of Sunday, May 14 to return pledges. For those who already made (and possibly even fulfilled) a pledge, the Bicentennial Committee will reach out to make sure to clarify the intention and situation of your prior pledge. In mid-May, we will assess where we are and look at next steps around scheduling and planning. You can find a link below to access the materials online should you prefer to do so. And, as always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or the wardens. We would be glad to meet with you as we look toward this fantastic celebration!

With enormous gratitude,
Stuart

We are extremely grateful to all who have pledged their support for the Future of Grace campaign. However, with prayerful consideration, the Bicentennial Committee has made the decision to postpone our campaign until 2021 in light of COVID-19 and its impact on our life in and outside of Grace.

We will send out more details in months to come regarding pledges already made, but all who have made pledges will have the opportunity to revisit their pledges prior to the campaign being finalized. Please feel free to reach out to Jason or Tate with any questions or concerns.

A Future of Grace is looking bright. We are roughly halfway through the campaign and have received a total of $430,643 in pledges. 47 households out of Grace’s 430 households have pledged so far. Our goal is to try to wrap up the campaign by Easter (April 12) so we can look to begin work in 2021.

If you have any questions regarding the campaign, please feel free to ask Jason Voyles or Tate O’Rouke.

Despite some projects being in progress or already complete, the main portion of the capital campaign was officially kicked off at our Annual Parish Meeting on January 26, 2020. Jason Voyles and Tate O’Rouke gave a presentation during the meeting and campaign packets were mailed to member households the following week.

The Sanctuary Plaza project experienced some weather delays but work continues on the corner of Washington Street and Boulevard.

Work began in July to improve the island in the parking lot near our preschool and parish hall.

The plan is based on a short term concept presented in 2016 as part of a multi-phase overall landscape design.

The bald cypress trees, whose knees were coming up in the island and parking lot, and the existing concrete curb will be removed. New stone curbing with either a river rock, or paver gutter, and additional bio-swales, allowing for better drainage from the parking lot to the storm drain, will be added. The island will then be planted with water tolerant drought resistant plantings.

The funding for this particular aspect of the campaign came from 2019 endowment funds available for capital improvements. The parish will remember that the endowment process was clarified and enhanced in 2018 to coordinate between outreach/community ministries and building enhancements.

In addition to our project remodeling the center island, the City of Gainesville has begun an unrelated storm water upgrade project along Boulevard which includes new storm water inlets along the street. A portion of the work is happening in our parking lot where our existing storm water system will tie into the new line being installed by the city.

On Sunday, July 14, Grace Episcopal Church ceremonially broke ground on a new Sanctuary Plaza at the corner of Washington Street and Boulevard. The goal of the project is to enhance the primary entrances to the church sanctuary and to offer a welcoming spot for the community to linger, rest, and converse in the corridor between Brenau University and the Downtown Square. The Plaza development is possible due to a generous gift by Bob and Linda Fowler and their family, stalwart parishioners at Grace whose vision continues to inspire the entire community to imagine how Grace Church can be a faithful presence in the wider area.

The design for the Sanctuary Plaza results in a new open space for the church and the community. With the removal of a large raised planting bed, enhanced pedestrian circulation and a place for respite is created. Close coordination with the city of Gainesville allows the church to improve the public right of way, with decorative brick paving extending from the church property to the curb. Curvilinear concrete seating walls separate paved areas from a new planting bed, filled with mostly native plant species. A swale within the planting bed handles surface runoff with the strategic placement of rock as check dams.

The project is designed by WLA Studio with staff including Dale Jaeger, Project Manager and Principal Landscape Architect and Cameron Yates, Landscape Architect. The Campus Vision and Development Committee, led by Mary Lynn Coyle and Doug McDuff, provided guidance to the design team throughout the process.

Rusty Ligon, director of Gainesville’s Community and Economic Development Department, states “The City is excited about Grace Episcopal Church’s plans for their new Sanctuary Plaza project. We believe this project will not only enhance the aesthetics of the church property but will also provide an inviting public space to the many people who visit the Brenau area every day.”

The Sanctuary Plaza is the first of several projects planned as Grace Church looks toward celebrating its Bicentennial in 2028. Recognizing both its history and current community ministry, Grace Episcopal Church continues to explore how it can share in the ongoing work of Gainesville-Hall County’s Vision 2030 campaign.

• The Steering Committee continues to meet to plan the participation and publicity portion of the campaign. Once key decisions are finalized by the vestry, we will begin the formal pledge portion of the campaign.
• The Campus Vision and Development Committee continues to meet with Hank Houser, our liturgical architect, to finalize proposals for updates and a potential master plan for the entire campus.
• The Finance Committee continues to look at details with the total feasible amount for the campaign. This information will be laid alongside the work of the CVD Committee to give the vestry the information they need to make their pertinent decisions.
• The Vestry continues to meet monthly to monitor the entire life of the parish community. They will receive updates as to the Steering Committee, the CVD Committee, and Finance Committees thoughts and recommendations in order for key decisions about the overall scope of the campaign.