Well, there’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that our neighbor congregation MIX, which meets on Sunday mornings at the Lincoln Center of the Arts across the street from St. Paul’s, has seen a large increase in attendance following a deep decline during the COVID-19 pandemic. MIX rents the school for their Sunday morning worship, including the parking lot. For more than a year, Pastor Jake Wirth and his team have generously allowed St. Paul’s members to park in the lot they’ve been paying for. And for that, I’m very grateful.
The bad news is that their growth means that they need their parking lot back on Sunday mornings, and they’ve asked us to stop parking at the school. This is not a new challenge for us. In our 140-year history, St. Paul’s never has had more parking than we do now, and we’ve managed, even when attendance was far higher. We’ll figure out how to continue.
For now, I’m asking that if you’re young and able-bodied, please find street parking for yourself, even if you see that there are available spots in our lot. I’ll do the same, and give up my cushy reserved parking place, inviting those who need to park close to the building to take my spot on any Sunday. For those of us who can, let’s remember our patron saint’s counsel: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things” (Gal. 5:22-23).
