Sundays June 14 and June 28: Important all-church meetings

The committees that have been gathering information about what we should keep and what we should sell or rehome are ready to tell us what they have learned and make some key recommendations. There will be two meetings, June 14th, to learn what committees have discovered and now recommend, and June 28th, an important vote on whether to sell the PCC Pipe Organ.

Sunday, June 14th, following the 11a.m. worship service, PCC members are invited to a church town hall meeting to hear the details of the Recovery and Reuse Committee’s recommendation to sell the newly refurbished pipe organ in the sanctuary. You will hear from an organ expert, Tim Newby, who is the second-generation owner of Central Music in St. Pete. Tim has renovated and installed organs for decades, including the massive organ at the Crystal Cathedral in California. Tim generously met with the Committee recently to explain the extensive process and cost of removing, storing, and then installing an organ of our vintage and size in a new worship space that would have to be designed specifically for that large instrument. Tim will also explain the current market for selling organs like ours at a time when many congregations are downsizing or closing.

We will also share what we have learned about the value of the Steinway piano in the sanctuary and discuss whether it would be wise to sell it rather than keep it unused for years, as it has been for the last two years.

The Committee will also detail what it has learned about the potential to save stained glass in both the chapel and the Sanctuary. *Spoiler alert: One expert told the committee that the stained glass at the front door of the chapel is quite valuable, hand-blown glass.

You will hear the Committee’s recommendations for which pieces of art, including paintings and prints, should be preserved for future PCC use.

The LEC Committee will give you details of its plans to improve the acoustics in the gym and they will explain the several options the members have explored for temporary stages that we will need once construction reduces the depth of the LEC stage. (Most of the LEC stage will become pre-school classrooms.)

The Building Oversight Committee will be ready to bring you up-to-the-minute on the longer-than-expected delays in getting construction underway to rehome the preschool. We expect to move the preschool to the LEC by January.

Sunday, June 28th at 12:30p.m., church members will gather for a special meeting to vote on the Church One-Board’s recommendation to sell the pipe organ as the Recovery and Reuse Committee recommends. (Reminder: only PCC members will vote.)