Old First Reformed UCC

It‘s loud and shaky at church today as a huge jackhammer is working at breaking up a a big concrete ball that was uncovered when excavating for the new building.

Michael thought maybe it was part of an old sewer system (it was sort of where there used to be a manhole cover).

But then Mike, our construction manager came over with an engineer to make sure we in the Sanctuary building were fine and our foundations sturdy vis a vis the hammering away. We are and how firm a foundation too.

As I was showing them all the different crawl spaces below the 1st floor of the Sanctuary building(there are actually 4 distinct spaces), he explained, „it‘s some huge footing, but not very old. Not from one of the 5-story Victorian buildings that used to be here. Was there ever something like a HUGE flagpole here?“

Voilá!

It‘s the remnant of Owen Fox‘s flagpole.
(And who says we don‘t leave legacies behind?)

I have often thought to myself that the major factor in the lives of the people who are without shelter that we serve is that they are on their own, families of one. That means there‘s no cushion vis a vis the vagaries of income and expenses.

It’s a good summary of the tense decision-making and political football around the lroposed new 76DevCorp proposal.

What it misses is our fears that the endgame of the 4 Billionaire developers (who have already been involved in disastrous gentrification projects in Philly including the cynical shuttering of Hahnemann Hospital) is actually the destruction of Chinatown, Center City’s last working class neighborhood, to open up a new frontier for gentrification…

(Also, I am in the article (kind of!) as I was one of the people getting ejected by security from the “public meeting” (really, it was just rank & file from the building trades in pro 76DevCorp t-shirts LOL) — holding one end of the sign reading “ ‘$o cost to the philly taxpayers.’Who pays for the infrastructure? “

In a City Defined by History, Chinatown’s Champions Fear New Arena for 76ers Chinatowns in the United States and Canada have long been squeezed by development projects. Will a proposed arena in Philadelphia’s struggling downtown be the next?

So, construction moved ahead all week. They stayed late today to get cement poured for the utility parts of the basement and the lowest point: the base of the elevator shaft.

There is also a hiccup: excavating uncovered an old tank that was below the basement floor of the CE building. They are doing their best to keep work flowing around it. But it needs to be investigated for contamination before being removed. We assume it is an old oil tank. And from that area will also need to be tested and possibly removed. Just an added issue and possible delay.

Prayers for our Methodist siblings in faith who are experiencing a break up of their church over L,G,T,B policies (or better "over L,G,B,T PEOPLE").

With a Deadline Looming, the United Methodist Church Breaks Up A quarter of the denomination’s churches have left, as the faith divides over L.G.B.T.Q. policies.

Our World feels like it’s spinning faster and faster;
like its weight is too heavy to bear;
like we’re all walking on thin ice.

‘But Christmas says we can live in this moment –
That the present is pregnant:
God did not wait until the world was ready;
we cannot wait until the world is just right.
Still we shell the infirmaries and bomb the wells
Where people gather for water.
But if we exchange selfishness for love,
If instead of wolves, we become siblings and neighbors…

…I want to turn – more like tilting within myself – in that direction.’

Our invitation is a paraphrase of the poems we (and the Spirit!) will use this year to interpret the traditional Christmas lessons, the candlelight, the music and the gathering worship on Christmas Eve.

PLEASE JOIN US -- THE SANCTUARY AT 7PM ON CHRISTMAS EVE. (you can worship with us on zoom too, of course!)

We are busy inside the church getting ready for Christmas -- celebrating the birth of a homeless child -- while the construction workers outside are busy on Old First House -- being built where traditionally we used to have the live animal creche -- that will provide permanent homes to those who have been chronically homeless. That seems seasonal, even faithful... (Some are worried the church doesn't look as pretty for Christmas, but think about it -- what better Christmas decoration could there be than this construction site? Ok, the finished building, but...)

Lest we think construction on Old First House happens only during the day!

A surprisingly Christian wrap-up of 2023 and look towards 2024 and beyond. Or at least he relies on Some Christian diagnoses of our challenges…

Opinion | Nature Is Profoundly Broken. Do We Love Anyone Beyond Ourselves Enough to Listen? The world has been trying to tell us something for a while. In 2023 it became impossible not to hear.

PARKING FOR CHRISTMAS EVE, SUNDAY, DEC. 24:
~ Normal relaxed parking in the morning (in the usual 4th and Race Street spaces), though service is designed for zoom.
~ Relaxed parking (in usual 4th and Race Street spaces) from 4 pm until 9 pm for the evening Candlelight Service; also
~Parking in the lot at Arch Street Quaker Meeting (driveway off of 4th Street, across from the Wyndham Hotel) for the evening Candlelight Service.(
(Please place our Parking Placard on your dashboard for both Relaxed Street Parking or in the Quaker lot:
https://oldfirstucc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/outreach-Sat-Sun.pdf)

WORSHIP SERVICES ON CHRISTMAS EVE:
~ Morning at 11 Advent 4: designed for most to participate via zoom, but we will broadcast from the Sanctuary, so if people wish to come to church on site, they are welcome. (For example, church in the Sanctuary often works better for children than church on zoom; the service will be more participative than usual -- so kids in the Sanctuary would be fun.)

~ Christmas Eve Service at 7 pm: Traditional Service of Lessons and Carols with readers in costume, Christmas brass, and candlelight "Silent Night" in German and English.

Join us tomorrow, Sunday, Dec. 17 @ 2 pm, please!

It's a community meeting with our Councilman, organized by the POWER Center City congregations...

Memories of Christmas Past (that might even make us feel better about said Christmas).
..It was surely easier to get a cow off of I-95 at Callowhill, than to get a bull out of the tracks at Newark's Penn Station!

L&I has lifted the stop work order on the construction (after the excavation sub got the paperwork for their license straightened out). And work has resumed.
The final archeology review happens under what was the former location of the Fox Building tomorrow (there's a place in the floor where they thought there might have been a indoor privy).

This article came up at our Elders' Meeting tonight? An elder asked why our church had taken a stance against the stadium. (The answer is because leaders in Chinatown asked for POWER's help in standing up to 76DevCorp.)

If you want to hear what Councilman Squilla is saying about the new arena and where he stands on the development proposal, join us at Mother Bethel AME Church (419 S. 6th Street) this Sunday, December 17 at 2 pm. The Center City congregations are organizing a conversation with the Councilman -- why has he resisted for so long to say whether he will support an arena at 11th / Market or not?

"If Philadelphia were truly committed to an independent review, it would be city planners — not the Sixers — leading the search for a new arena location.'

The Sixers want to model their arena on Boston’s TD Garden. I went there to see how it works. The Celtics' neighborhood, it turns out, is nothing like Market Street.

An Advent book suggestion. Or, at least, an Advent book review suggestion! Even the review provides an interesting way to think about one's faith, or compare it with an other's...

Opinion | The Power of Faith at 1 a.m. The modern world’s true cultural divide is not between believers and unbelievers but between those who think life is a puzzle and those who believe it’s a mystery.

Michael remembered the Christmas star we used up in the center window when we couldn’t worship in the Sanctuary because of pandemic restrictions.

It works well with the wreathes and Love First (particularly when we need to look ‘open for business’ with all construction fences)…

Someone asked for a daily, home advent candle lighting resource -- they want to use one of the pandemic-era advent candle holders we made for one another!

Daily Home Advent Candle Lighting… | Old First United Church of Christ One of you e-mailed me today (on Tuesday, Dec. 5): "I've found my pandemic advent candle holder block in the closet. It is too beautiful not to keep using each year, even after the pandemic restrictions have been lifted and it's not necessary. I bought a whole bunch of purple and pink and white dinn...

The Fox Building got moved successfully today to the south end of our property, where it is lined up with the other historic buildings on our block of 4th Street.

That cleared space for our new building, Old First House which will provided 34 permanent supportive apartment units for formerly chronically homeless folk, retail space right on the corner of 4th / Race, and new, accessible office and program space for the church. We expect 34 new neighbors in residence by January 1, 2025.

The Fox Building ended up closer to its new "neighbor" -- 141 N. 4th St. -- than we expected. We thought there could have been as much as a foot between them, but there are only inches.

And with The Fox Building moved, one can see the Sanctuary building in the open for a short interval. One can also see the space for the new building we are constructing.

Tomorrow, the Fox Building needs to be jacked up to remove the steel beams that have supported it since it was freed from its old foundation as well as served as the tracks on which it was moved.

Once the beams are gone, the building needs to be lowered 2 and 1/2 feet from its current "altitude" so it’s at street level in its new location. The building will rest on cribbing that will hold it while the new foundation is poured underneath it.

The images are backwards -- they show where we ended up, and then what it looked like when we started this morning. There will be a video of this move and this project that we will share when available.

It was a good day around the church. The architects, developers and construction folks watched from outside, but a whole bunch of church folks watched from the west windows of the Sanctuary. It seemed like that right place for us to be -- because all ministry starts from our gathered faithfulness and worship of God. It was a long and long-awaited, but worshipful day...

As we can say at church, “God is good.” Our developers, architects, construction company, the funders and the building movers are good too.

Thanks to everyone (esp. Sarah Jayne Sherr who oversaw the holy operation) who helped get the Sanctuary ready, decorated this morning.

That means tomorrow is Advent 1: join us in church, either online (sign-in from our website) or in the Sanctuary at 11 am.

Kris Forrest tagged OF in an earlier post, but i can’t figure out how to get it to show up. A good prompt for articulated gratitude….

we also work to keep people from sleeping outside the church….

During this week of Thanksgiving, Old First is grateful to the many local, state, and national partners that have made Old First House a possibility.

City of Philadelphia and Community Ventures Break Ground to Create New 30+ Units of Supportive Housing | Department of Planning and Development Groundbreaking of Old First House-affordable housing mixed-use development to create 34 permanent supportive housing units for the homeless.

Coverage from Billy Penn of the groundbreaking for Old First House--supportive housing for 34 women and men who previously struggled with homelessness.

Labor violations for teens at work; Inside the Insectarium collapse; Permanent supportive housing in Old City | Morning roundup Child labor violation surge? Philly teens often need to work Pa. officials say they’ve received a “surge” of reports of alleged child labor violations this year, and Philly companies that’ve paid penalties range from […]

Old First got some great local coverage of the groundbreaking ceremony for Old First House--supportive housing for 34 women and men who previously struggled with homelessness!

Old First House to provide new housing for the homeless FOX 29's Greg Payne gets the details after a public and private partnership creates additional housing for the chronically homeless in converted church in Old City.

This happened today!

Kathy and Jackie joined David LaFontaine from Community Ventures, Councilman Squilla, the board chair from DePaul USA and a host of other leaders from the city, state and federal agencies and private companies working as partners to bring about Old First House, permanent supportive housing for 34 women and men who previously struggled with chronic homelessness.

(There are so many pix of the group groundbreaking that you might think this creremony took as long as getting this project organized!)

There is a second set of pix of all the Old Firsters (the Joint Venture Ministry Team and about as many others) out there somewhere; it’s just that Michael doesn’t know whose camera they are on…)

The final pix is of Beth W and Dianne, / of our Saturday Super Volunteers, enjoying getting to be on the work site!

So, the building move is put off a few more days as Wolfe Building Movers recognized that the Fox Building needs to move not only south, but also a couple of feet lower (to follow the slope on 4th Street). For that to happen, Wolfe needed Domus to regrade the area between the place where the Fox Building sits and its new location (essentially, the back parking lot). Once that work is done (it seemed to be almost done this morning), Wolfe will begin laying the rails on which the building will “slide to the left.”
This means that the building move looks to happen on Wednesday or Friday either side of Thanksgiving, or at the latest Monday the 27th. More details to follow…

THE GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY WILL STILL HAPPEN AS PLANNED ON THIS COMING MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, FROM NOON TO 1:30 PM. (it will happen outside in the front courtyard, so dress appropriately. Refreshments will follow inside immediately afterwards.

I cannot explain these photos much, but i am pretty sure they prove progress is being made. Stay tuned / keep checking back for the date of the move…

So the building movers mean business!

In this, their first full day of preparing to move the Fox Building, they have cut holes all around the foundation to insert the steal beams on which the building will be lifted / rest while it is moved and while the foundation is created under its new location.

They would have gotten further today if they had not had to reload and send back a set of beams that were wrong for the work to be done!
But if you are moving 250-year old, 4-story brick building, you probably want the right equipment.

So, Wolfe Building Movers started work on site today.
The Groundbreaking Ceremony will be on Nov. 20 at noon (we know Mayor Kenney and Councilman Squilla are coming; we hope you will too).
We're waiting to get a hard date on the building move, but we are getting excited and telling others about it...