Present Needs

The St. John's parish is growing, with a Sunday attendance at over 100 and a parish roster of 135 adults and 50 children and infants. Recent parish growth can be attributed to multiple factors, including:

• A strong liturgical base with a consistent message of God’s grace and mercy
• An active Sunday School and Sunday nursery
• Special events, programs, and worship services open to the community beyond the parish
• A commitment to diversity – in our membership, liturgy, programming, and our outreach to the community.
• Promotion in print, our signage, and our web site. We have been selected "Best Place of Worship" in Jamaica Plain for three years in a row. Our lawn features a banner proudly proclaiming "We Rejoice in Equal Marriage."
• Yearly Every Member Canvass to better understand the needs of parishioners.

The vestry and parish community desire continued growth, both in numbers and mission, in order to live out our mission statement: "Let all who enter here be received as Christ."

However, growth has been limited by the constraints of our building, which included until recently:

• A basement that has only 30% usable space for Sunday School, Sunday nursery and other programming/uses due to water leaks from the tower, the unfinished condition of the remaining space and inadequate egress.
• A single working toilet for the entire building.
• A limited food preparation area.
• Inefficient and expensive heating, electrical and plumbing systems.
• Lack of full handicapped accessibility.
• Lack of funding for support staff to manage further growth.

In addition to these practical issues, the sanctuary, parish hall, guild room (all on ground level) and rectory all need historic renovation to fully meet their potential for programming, education and outreach. Beyond these basic facility needs, the artistic integrity of our building has been compromised. For example, our beautiful stained glass windows have begun to decay.

Proposed Solutions

The Great Work is Underway!

Beginning in 2002, the parish raised the necessary funds, through grants, loans and endowment, to restore our slate roof to its original polychromatic scheme and install a drainage system and copper gutters to stem the damage from a leaky building and landscape our grounds to make them handicap accessible.

In August, 2007, St. John's began construction on our Parish School Project: the renovation of our basement space into a fully functional, handicapped accessible space for the parish and community alike. The built-out space will include three classrooms and an office/general use room, a warming kitchen adult and training toilets, and new electrical, heating, and structural systems and will provide a second egress from the basement for safety. We expect construction to be completed by mid-December, 2007.

To finance this project, parishioners have raised $500,000. through a internal pledges and gifts from friends of the parish. These donations represent magnificent generosity, creativity, sacrifice, and faith, on the part of our members and supporters. With thankful hearts for blessings received, we go forward with plans to complete the funding of the Parish School Project and move on to further restoration of our sacred and historic buildings.