[Magdalen] State of the parish

[Jim Guthrie]

From: ME Michaud

>My great grandmother was born in 1842.

And I'm sure the church she attended is still there and well maintained at about 
the same percentage of budget as to when she was a worshipper.

But those slate roofs were installed by everyday workmen where today, even 
repair of same is an expensive specialty. The Cathedral of St John took to 
training stone masons of their own because stone masons who do quality work are 
in short supply and charge accordingly. As the trainees acquired skills, they;d 
leave for high paying jobs working on buildings all over the United States. That 
turnover helped kill the program (though a whole bunch of local young men from 
Harlem and nearby ended up with very lucrative professions as a result.

The fact is, we are wedded to buildings we cannot afford. And we have clergy who 
think :selling" the parish to those great unwashed is beneath their dignity, 
(and anyway, they  get paid he same whether they work at it or not) and likewise 
we have congregations who really don’t want newcomers unless they fall in 
lockstep to the tradition du jure of the parish.

That's not a formula

>When was your church bullt?

Mine? generally irrelevant these days. We survive on a $10-Million endowment for 
the ASA of about 40. I hasten to add that few churches have that kind of money 
sitting around. But the coal barons having their workers slave in the mines in 
jobs that killed a half dozen workers a week sought to atone by putting money 
into their churches.

Cheers,
Jim