Newly renovated chapel

This is the old chapel at our church, which dates back to 1848. It served as the place of worship until the 1980's when a new sanctuary was built. The interior has recently been renovated, taking out the old (uncomfortable) pews , re-painting, carpeting, re-doing lighting, installing a screen which will retract into the ceiling and re-doing the sound. The reason for this work was twofold. Our church has attracted an increased congregation over the last five years or so, and quite often our 10.30 service (we used to have two, at 9.00 and 10.30) is full, and on occasion people have been known to leave as they couldnt find a seat. There is also a lot going on during the week - studies, meetings, etc, and sometimes there has been a shortage of rooms. Whilst in the long term the hope is to build a bigger sanctuary, it was felt that rather than the old chapel just sitting there empty and hardly used, it could be turned into a more functional space. With the individual seating, it can be used for meetings during the week, and it lends itself better to a more informal 3rd service they have introduced - we now have three slightly shortened services, with the middle one being more informal and in the chapel. This is only in its third week, so its early days to see how it will work out. The chancel choir, in which Roger and I sing, will usually sing 1st and 3rd services, whilst approximately once a month we will sing 1st and 2nd, which we did today, which was quite nice, as we got to leave earlier, though that won't always be the case, as we usually have hand-bell practice after third service! There are some long-term members of course who didnt want the change - in particular didnt want the old pews taking out, but I think its good to see the chapel being regularly used again.

On quite a different note, it was an exciting afternoon for Cincinnati football, as the Cincinnati Bengals defeated the NFL champions Pittsburgh Steelers in a nail-biting finish. Last season was a bad season for the Bengals, partly due to missing their regular quarterback, Carson Palmer, most of the season due to an elbow injury, but after today's victory, lets hope better things are in store for 2009! We spoke to our son Philip on the phone this evening - he was quite happy since both his teams had won this weekend - University of Cincinnati Bearcats and the Bengals!

One year ago: Shadows