Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990 TAG: 9005240509
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: FRANCES STEBBINS CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
The new wing for fellowship as well as extensive remodeling of older areas brings together what had become a patchwork quilt of rooms, corridors and empty spaces.
"The fun part comes now," said the Rev. Martin G. Townsend, rector since 1987. "We're considering names - Anglican saints maybe - for these new areas."
For a parish that calls its coffee house "Gabriel's Psaltery" and its newsletter "The Compass," the naming shouldn't be too hard.
The new parish hall, in which 150 can be fed from an enlarged and modernized kitchen, has been dubbed "the great hall," Townsend said. Another new space is being called "the common."
This area, created from a narrow hall, cluttering walls and a kitchen far too small to serve the 300 or so active members of the parish, now is an inviting gathering place between the worship area and the space for fellowship and education.
The hall looks big and airy, well lighted and, above all, air conditioned. The rest of the church will remain warm at least until the second phase of a building improvement effort is finished sometime before the end of the decade.
Townsend said he saw when he came from Maryland three years ago that the parish had outgrown the additions made since its first unit was built in 1879.
Nothing was large enough for Christ Church's steadily growing membership. The nave seats only 200, but its inadequacy has been managed, Townsend said, by having three services each Sunday morning from fall through spring.
"Sometimes it's frustrating to have a divided congregation, but it gives us great flexibility in programming," the rector said. An 8 a.m. traditional Communion service serves about 30 who have found it hard to realize that the 9 and 11 a.m. services often fill the church.
Because of the three services, Townsend noted that it is possible to offer contemporary language Communion every Sunday at 9. Those who prefer to come later have a choice, depending on the Sunday, of traditional language Communion or morning prayer.
Although modern Episcopal worship allows for these options, enlargement of the church seemed vital to open up space for the 120 children and 60 adults who had been crowding the old parish hall for Sunday school, Townsend said.
Townsend regards this commitment to education as one of the most encouraging aspects of the church's growth. It shows, he said, that young adults care about passing on the Anglican Christian heritage to their children and that they are still interested in learning after confirmation age.
And fellowship is built around eating - at both the Communion ritual and the potluck suppers. Minds, too, are fed - by libraries. Townsend showed off the old parish hall, which is being redone into a cozy reading and small-meeting area.
Many improvements don't show, the rector noted. Those in wheel chairs will appreciate a new rest room; another $60,000 went for asbestos removal.
Townsend said some of the $300,000 raised for this project also went to reinforce the foundation of the 112-year-old limestone building. Most of the high-traffic areas have new gray carpet and the old pews and the floor in the nave were refinished.
The rector had high praise for the advice of Orrin Arnold, a Blacksburg architect, who helped parish leaders use their dollars wisely in planning for 21st century needs.
If ever a church needed an overall plan, Townsend said, it was Christ Church of Blacksburg. From the time the worship area was built - when Blacksburg had 800 people, dirt streets and the "huckleberry line" slow train to Christiansburg - facilities grew in small increments to a not-always-harmonious whole.
The altar area was extensively changed in World War I and again a few years ago so the celebrant at Communion could face the people.
The square bell tower altered the appearance of the church, as did the addition of the small old parish hall in a wing to the south of the nave. Even later, Sunday school rooms were added as Episcopalians grew to appreciate this need.
"All this had been given to us by our forebears at Christ Church," Townsend said. "I told our people that we could do no less to pass on to the future our commitment to a strong and growing parish."
Though a case can be made for a a church not spending money on itself at the expense of the needy in its surroundings, Townsend said the time comes when building is needed to keep newcomers coming for spiritual sustenance and human fellowship.
He was delighted, he said, that a tentative financial goal of $300,000 was more than met in 1988 and that giving to the building project and operating budget has nearly doubled in the past three years.
Plans later in the decade include adding a cloister to the south side of the church for easier access to the education wing. Better music space - the organ was new a decade ago - and more efficient offices also are part of future plans.
by CNB