Yes, it’s been about a month…. Attawapsikat is back together. The temperature early this evening (6:30 PM) is 75* Fahrenheit. up to last week we were getting a frost now and then. Today, however, we have had some warmth. With a little luck, by next Sunday — 27 June, Fathers’ Day — we’ll be back in the Old Church. I, however, will be on vacation by then — until the end of July.
Earlier this week we finally got word as to how much it might cost to restore — rescue, in fact — the Old Church.
The building is sinking into the mud. (We’re like Venice in more ways than one.) The only way to really stop the sinking — for more than ten years — is to put a concrete footing under the Church. That will cost. The first estimates of the cost are coming in at around $800,000 — which I think will turn out to be low. St. Thomas’, itself, will probably have to raise about $200,000; we have a good shot at grant money for the rest. We have some land to sell. After that it’s brownies and moccasin sales and begging. But I think it just might be done. It definitely is worth the fight. It will be a fight; there are only about 100 of us Anglicans who remain consistently active on The Island. But the Old Church is precious — to everyone.