Read this week’s issue of The Weekly Liberal here.

In this week’s newsletter, Rev. Jen Crow writes:

It’s hard to believe that it was nearly a year ago that our church community gathered at the Minneapolis Event Centers to celebrate the launch of what has come to be a very successful capital campaign. Through our mission-based vision, Not for Ourselves Alone: Building an Inclusive Future , and through the hard work and dedication of hundreds of volunteers and even more donors, together we raised over $5.5 million. These funds will be used to make our building more welcoming and accessible through renovation of our existing spaces and construction of new spaces.

Through the summer, fall, and now winter, your Building Team, consisting of Keven Ambrus, Christa Anders, Eric Cooperstein, Shawn Gaither, Peter Styx, Kristin Mengelkoch, Christina Nicholson, Paul Kloth, Rev. Justin Schroeder, Jenn Stromberg, our architectural team from Miller-Dunwiddie, and led by Rev. Jen Crow, has been hard at work. Together, we’ve begun to understand our available budget and construction costs, we’ve gathered input and shared information with the congregation through open meetings and focus groups, and we continue to explore options for how to best meet our goals with the funds we have.

Originally, we had hoped to begin major construction and renovation in the summer of 2018. As we’ve looked into options presented by our architects, though, we’ve slowed down our process to include the possibility of building up on our Religious Education wing. Pausing to include this possibility means pausing to allow the structural investigations necessary to be sure that our Religious Education wing can support the addition of a third floor. Our investigations so far have yielded positive results, and we’ve also learned a lot about our building. I hope you’ll join us at the State of the Church Meeting on Sunday, Feb. 11 to hear more about how this process has been unfolding and the discoveries we’ve made.

For now, this means that whatever option best meets our congregation’s needs and goals -whether that turns out to be adding a third floor on our RE wing or building a new addition – major construction will not begin this summer, but will occur in the summer of 2019. This will give us ample time to refine our options, communicate with the congregation through Liberal articles and open meetings, and plan for our major work. The Building Team is also in conversation about what work can occur in the summer of 2018. Stay tuned as we consider the possibilities for the summer of 2018, which may include improvements in the social hall, a new roof for the sanctuary building, and some areas of flexible seating to test out in the sanctuary.

As always, please be in touch with any questions or thoughts you may have. It is exciting to be building our future together.

In faith,

Rev. Jen Crow