Editor Note: This was meant to go out weeks ago in a print publication. However, due to current staff shortage, the printing was put on hold.

"The church building itself must be a space designed to be sacred, holy and apart from the secular world, that instantly  'feels' like a special place when you walk into the room. We will look at Saint Timothy's to reflect our religious heritage and convey to all our respect of Anglican tradition. We also look to the church to impart a sense of spiritual mystery and wonder. We look to the church to radiate and amplify the energy of the Holy Spirit. We look to this building as a way of imparting to our children those values we hold sacred in our lives."

The above was written twenty years ago at an Architectural Committee Meeting at St Timothy's. For some time the leaders of our parish had been discerning a vision to build a new church. This new church would be designed to accommodate the growing numbers of worshippers and to make a spiritual statement. Three years later, the Bishop of North Carolina would consecrate the steel and stone embodiment of the first step from the architectural - and theological - statement.

Sixteen years later, we have worshipped in the "new church" for nearly 1,000 Sundays. Like moving into a new home, after a few years you start to realize what functional and aesthetic items you missed during the planning phase. Perhaps you underestimated the amount of storage space or there are too many stairs or the morning light is a little too bright in the kitchen. Thousands of Holy Eucharists have been celebrated. Hundreds of baptisms and funerals, dozens of weddings, and innumerable numbers of prayers have been said within those walls. As we have lived and prayed in the space we start to make mental notes of what would work better and what would look better. We have noted increasingly cramped spaces and functional awkwardness. And as our space has developed, through blessings such as the installation of the Hook and Hastings organ, we start to view the space differently.

Interestingly, perhaps providentially, in looking through the documents from the planning phase of the church twenty years ago, we discovered that the Architectural Committee foresaw this. In writing about the new church, the stated goal was to "develop a cohesive 'Campus Plan' that will serve as a developmental tool for the next twenty plus years of growth." The vestry, building and architectural committees, and most certainly the people of St Timothy's made a plan for growth and the proclamation of Christianity and they understood that plan would need to be revisited in twenty years. Twenty years have passed and for the past several months, the vestry has picked up the continuity of thought from their predecessors.

At the August 9, 2015 meeting, the vestry established a committee to explore, discuss, and pray about what this continuity might look like. The newly formed Campus Vision Committee (CVC) consisted of Charlie Lovett, Richard Graves (vestry), Kelly Hines, David Bergstone, Beckie McLean (vestry), with Fr Steve and John Roberts as clergy and staff liaisons. The CVC met on a regular basis. They learned about the previous building program, especially its purpose and vision. They studied the history of church buildings with an emphasis on churches in the Anglican tradition. They studied well-known church architects such as Ralph Adams Cram, the architect of St Paul's and the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City and the work of Sir Ninian Comper from England. Both architects were adamant that no committee (and certainly not the vicar!) should design a space, but the job should be placed in the hands of a capable architect/artist.

Desiring to learn more about the process of church building, Fr Steve, John Roberts, and Chris Ervin met with with representatives from three architectural firms to learn what is involved in creating a master plan, new construction, or remodeling.

Meanwhile, the CVC invited two liturgical artists to visit St Timothy's and share their thoughts. The portfolios of these artists range from Washington National Cathedral to churches in Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Providence, Rhode Island. Again, the purpose was to learn what could be done and should be done in the event the vestry decides to further explore a capital campaign and church expansion and/or facility revitalization.

From these conversations, four areas of emphasis emerged:

This is a general summary of the conversation thus far. Since this work was undertaken as a fact-finding mission, the conversation has been limited to the CVC and the Vestry. However, after seven months of discernment, the vestry voted at the February meeting to continue the exploration of renewing our church building, thereby properly bringing the conversation to the parish as a whole. No decisions have been made, no plans have been drawn, and no contracts have been signed. We have had delightful and edifying conversations and a good deal of holy dreaming.