2005 Mark Nelson, Parish Life Center architect, evaluated the plan of the entire campus in preparation for the St. Thomas School remodel. The school project started parishioners thinking about upgrading the Great Hall, then over 50 years old, having significant maintenance problems, and increasingly becoming inadequate for church growth.
March 2006 Father Lee proposed a remodel/rebuild of the Great Hall. At the 2006 annual Vestry Retreat, he is turned down with the rationale that the church has had significant problems in the recent past, and although improvement was needed, we should let recent soothing of past problems continue for a while.
August 2006 A Facilities Task Force is established to plan for a future update. By October initial plans are prepared by Mark Nelson, designer of the Chapel built in 2000.
Winter 2007 Bad winter with multitude of serious utilities failures required major effort and convinced Vestry that a significant upgrade was both urgent and unavoidable.
Spring 2007 School demolition uprooted shared utilities between School and Parish, disabling plumbing, heating, and electrical systems. Expensive repairs further highlighted infrastructure problems.
September 2007 Focus groups were formed to evaluate needs of church and the nationwide search for development consultants to help was begun. After the search the Enrichment Group from Tacoma was determined to be the best fit as they had demonstrated much success in Puget Sound area in Episcopal, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches.
Later 2007 Father Lee was called to be Bishop of Chicago. Consecrated as Bishop in February 2008.
2008 Simultaneous continued building project, profile development, and search for new rector were too complex and building project went on hold. However, through interviews and focus groups, evaluation by Enrichment estimates that a $4.5 - $5 million Capital Campaign is very possible. Sole proviso of donors was that the Profile and Search Committees emphasize importance of new Rector having experience with capital campaigns and major building projects.
Late 2008 Bishop Rickel meets with Search Committee and Vestry and urged everything NOT be put on hold as happened in Diocese prior to his arrival. It left too much for the new Rector to do in addition to his regular duties. All agreed going much further required the new head of St. Thomas to be in place before proceeding.
October – November 2009 Process restarts with Father Lex’s arrival in September. Vestry resolved to officially reaffirm campaign and authorized with funding through September of 2010.
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