[Magdalen] Coffee Hour arrangements (was Re: Heather Cook)

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

There's a big church in Kassel which was flattened during the late
unpleasantness, and all that is left of the old building is the high altar,
which is now a peripheral wall in the back, yet preserved. The great
composer Heinrich Schuetz sang in the choir here as a boy.

The newer building is an orthodox cathedral type structure (quite large).
Kassel gets some fairly cold weather.

I suppose when they got heating bills over the top, they arrived at a
rather charming solution: They installed a small plexiglass cube in the
middle of the structure, and held their services inside this cube.  You are
in the huge cathedral still, but only a fraction of the volume is being
heated.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Sat, Nov 7, 2015 at 10:30 AM, Scott Knitter <scottknitter at gmail.com>
wrote:

> One winter we tried saving on heating costs by having weekday Masses
> and Offices in a chapel that was set up in the narthex. We stuck to
> this all winter, and I think the results were disappointing: not much
> savings. But that might be because of a faulty meter--some years later
> we threatened to sue the gas company for giant overcharges they blamed
> on a leak that no one could find, and then it was shown our meter was
> farkakt. We got a big refund plus a goodwill amount.
>
> Anyway, the narthex chapel was an interesting experiment. The one
> thing I didn't like was when a stranger would enter during Mass and
> then go right back out after being startled by the fact that Mass was
> just inside the door rather than in the church.
>
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 7, 2015 at 8:18 AM, Jim Guthrie <jguthrie at pipeline.com> wrote:
> > From: James Oppenheimer-Crawford
> >
> >> Oh tish tosh!  The place is already heated, so having the coffee hour
> >> there
> >> is no significant loss.  The gain in other respects is well worth that
> >> tiny
> >> cost, if indeed there is one.
> >
> >
> > Why is it heated? is everything on one system/thermostat?
> >
> > Hasn't the Building and Grounds Committee studied this and looked the
> > cost/benefit? Or do the gifts of B&G member lie elsewhere?
> >
> > I suppose a parish with unlimited resources could skip the discussion.
> >
> > Can you name any?
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Jim
> >
> >
> > James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
> > *“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
> > except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Scott R. Knitter
> Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA
>