After months in the parish hall, the congregation of Christ Church was able to return to their restored sanctuary for the first time on Holy Saturday for the Easter Vigil. The sight that greeted them must have been breathtaking. The decaying plaster of the east wall and the black ceiling of the apse were gone. Instead, had workers uncovered the original stonework and painted the apse ceiling the sky blue, just as they had been when the church was new.

"We must have had 15 people working in church on Holy Saturday morning trying to get it all finished," said Mother Lang Pegram, priest-in-charge at Christ Church.

The project began not so much to beautify the interior of the historic church building that is modeled after the historic St. Martin’s church in Canterbury, England, but to stabilize decaying walls that were being destroyed by water. Congregation members held bake and yard sales, sold hand crocheted dish clothes, and created a cook book to raise money to meet the diocese’s matching grant to cover the cost of the work by historical restorer John Fullard.

The congregation also received help from their neighbor, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, which donated $750 toward the work. "They put us over the top," said Pegram.

-posted May 20, 2008-