Our Stories
Restoration Project Breathes Life, Hope into Batavia Congregation
by Laurie Kaiser
Possibly as soon as Easter, St. James Episcopal Church in Batavia will celebrate a personal renewal and resurrection of its own. The church's bell will joyfully ring again after more than two years of remaining silent. The front doors once again will swing open to welcome parishioners inside. Neither bell nor front door has been able to be used due to the risk of falling rocks and mortar from the deteriorating bell tower in the 104-year-old church.
Thanks to the work of a small but dedicated congregation, along with young people in the community and even bottle redemption centers, St. James secured the $500,000 necessary to restore the historic bell tower.
Read more: Restoration Project Breathes Life, Hope into Batavia Congregation
WNYers lend helping hands in Massachusetts
Seven hardy souls from St. Mark’s Church in Orchard Park found out, up close and personal, what it meant to experience the wrath of Mother Nature and the devastating loss afterwards. The disaster was a tornado that hit the Springfield, MA, area in April 2011. The up close and personal part involved cutting felled trees, clearing debris and providing support to the victims of the storm by just being there to listen and console, five months afterwards.
We seven met with 80+ Episcopalian volunteers the evening of Sept 2 at St. Marks, East Longmeadow, MA. The Church provided a lovely evening meal for us, explained the weekend’s activities and ended with evening prayers. Early the next morning we were separated into smaller groups of 7 or 8 and given our assignments. Local volunteers provided their personal cars to take us to our sites. Many of the men brought their trusty chainsaws. They were quaking with excitement in anticipation of using their power tools! Many of their chainsaws were dusty with non-use, so imagine the anticipation of their “Tim the Tool Man Taylor” moment when they powered up their saws the next morning! The women were not allowed to use the saws. (None of us knew how to use them anyway!) We were allowed to lift, tote, stack and toss brush and logs. It was quite a sight to see the geriatric set sawing and tossing—holding their own against younger workers!
