The Trees

If you attended Mass today, then you probably noticed something different about the construction site where our new sanctuary will rise. There are some trees missing.

We miss them too. If there were any way to preserve them, they would still be standing. The way the building codes required us to use the lot's footprint forced us to sacrifice some of the beautiful hardwoods that have sheltered us for so many years.

But if you look carefully, you may see that those tree trunks are stacked neatly to the side. The church has plans to reuse the wood from these majestic trees. We will build a cross from them, for one, and there are plans to create other projects from this wood.* Reusing this wood means that we will have to pay for it to be kiln-dried, milled and more. But we thought it was important for our parish to reuse and recycle these trees, since we were forced to remove them during construction of our new sanctuary.

This isn't the only recycling we are doing as we are "Making a Place at the Table." We have stories to tell you about the stained glass windows, the stations of the cross and more.

For now, you're welcome to give us your feedback on the construction so far. We'd love to hear your thoughts.

*Edited to update: Not every tree will be able to be used for church projects.

Welcome

How many of you were standing on the sidewalk on Elm Street on December 29th when the construction equipment roared into action? There was a good group of spectators who witnessed the start of a new era, and plenty of coverage from the news media in Greensboro. It's not every day a parish takes the bold step of demolishing its sanctuary in order to build something that will benefit the community.

We have some of the photos posted on the web at Flickr.com. Click here to view a slideshow of that first day of demolition. We'd love you to post your photos on Flickr too, and let us know in the comments that you've done so and where they are. If you tag them "spxgso" it will be easy for us to find them.

It's been less than a month since construction began, and there are so many changes already.