Rector’s Note: Here is the church, here is the steeple-10.22.26

Here is the church, here is the steeple, open the doors and see all the people.

I found myself doing that little hand rhyme as we reached the final days of our steeple installation project this week. Pro tip: your pinky fingers must be pointing upward to make the steeple, and you have to remember to tuck your fingers inside your hands so you can “see all the people” inside the church.  My fingers must have been much more flexible when I was taught that rhyme as a youngster.

It turns out a lot goes into getting a steeple onto a church, no matter how agile your fingers are.

This week, with our driveway closed, many of the people were outside the church, helping to direct traffic to ensure that the temporary driving pattern in and out of the parking lot worked smoothly and safely. Special thanks to Ernie Dixon, Mark Evans, Audrey and Dave Kipphut, Deborah Way, John Olson, and Mike Gallagher for flagging in visitors on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings! Property Chair Dave Kipphut visited the church daily to make sure the construction work was going smoothly. Ernie Dixon, Mark Evans and Rebecca Fellerman were on hand in the weeks ahead to think through securing building exits and entrances to ensure tenants and visitors were safely out of the way of construction. Caretaker Tim Valera hauled out heavy traffic cones and signs and cleaned up a sizeable oil spill when a visitor’s car engine was met with disaster. Charlese Freeman-Benoit, our parish administrator, has been managing claims, meetings, calls, strategies and communication around the effort for months.

This project has been a long and complicated one, ever since a lightning strike more than two years ago required us to remove the old steeple and build a new one. We have relied heavily on the skills of our parishioners and staff for their expertise and insights on contracting and construction, insurance, architecture, aesthetics and engineering, communications, negotiations and volunteer coordination. We also received advice from the diocese in how to navigate a complex insurance claim.

Thankfully, one might even say miraculously, just about all of the cost of the removal and replacement was covered by insurance.

The act of hoisting a steeple onto a building has an immense impact on all who use the space. Our preschool tenant, Kid View, graciously alerted parents to new traffic patterns and brought in more staff to assist in temporary new drop off practices.  We cancelled programs this week and warned our food pantry users of limited access. We talked to neighbors to make sure they kept their children out of harm’s way and our parking lot clear.

That’s a lot of work to make sure that a piece of esthetic architecture can be put back in place. But churches need ways to be visible from a distance, and steeples are one way to do that. Our position behind several large trees on a fast-moving part of Easton Road makes it hard for people to notice a church that has been situated there for more than 100 years, even when a spire rises above.

But steeples are more than church location markers. They point upward to the heavens and remind people to consider that the work of the people in the building below is aimed at the service, praise and worship of God. And while God is also within, around, throughout and beyond, above isn’t a bad place to look to consider the power of the Most High.

The steeple is just one way to make a church visible, and to point in a faithful direction. The people that serve in St. Peter’s name are the church at its most pointed and impactful, whether they are cheerfully guiding traffic, or feeding their neighbors, or assisting at liturgy, or running ministries, or providing leadership or bringing their faith to their workplaces.

This week the process of putting the new steeple on the church is pointing me to gratitude at all the people that make a church, especially during this complicated and demanding week. Please keep those hands folded in prayer that the project continues to move as smoothly in upcoming days as it did the first part of the week. And make sure to keep those pinky fingers up in honor of the steeple, which should be in place for all to see by Sunday morning.