OZYMANDIAS
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".
—Percy Bysshe Shelley
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".
—Percy Bysshe Shelley
| DECLINE A Future Nostalgia The building, grounds and other structures were built in about 1927. Another church owned it before and then St. Matthew purchased it about 1940. As you can imagine there are things going on with the structures. The other buildings on the property are not up to code and therefore are not really usable, at least for commercial purposes such as a school, kindergarten etc. It has been tried and it has failed one way or the other. The list of ongoing problems include the following: Roof repairs, leaks, crack in the walls, flooring issues, separations of the front portion of the building from the older section, access, codes and more. This leads to the common joke...that the organist may need to start wearing a hard hat. This is not just humor...it may be a necessity. Archways outside are supported with temporary wood braces. The mortar and cement in the brick exteriors are eroding and probably constitute trip hazards with falling debris at this time. The other big issue is the front part of the building (the organ loft) is leaning toward the street and is separating from the main structure. This problem may be hidden for some time but the day will come when this will have to be fixed...if possible. In order to really put the building back together for the next 100 years is so far out of sight regarding funds that it is not worth working up a comprehensive plan. The estimates run into hundreds of thousands of dollars and may approach the million dollar range or more! As of about 4-11 they are pouring money down the hole...proping it up! Chances are that they will fix things as needed and proceed with whatever their general plan is. AC and heat will become an issue at some point. Replacement will cost a fortune. Can you imagine how much of a member's contributions will eventually go simply to maintenance? I sincerely think that the organ should be sold and just use a piano. I don't think that will happen, but I have seen the necessity in other churches that either were in physical decline or loss of membership. My intuition is that at some point not too far in the future, the land will be more valuable as commercial property and may be at that point now. At that time the sale of the property may allow the church to move out to the burbs or other locations and start up a typical church that will be more becoming to the size of this congregation. On the other hand it may just disband. The churches that are growing are the ones that take advantage of many revenue streams and/or have significant gifts and endowments and apply good business principles. Just so everybody knows, I did my part in developing an income stream from weddings and concerts that approached $20,000 per year! This was based upon approximately 25 weddings/year and concerts were just starting to come on stream. I projected upwards of $45,000/yr in another 3 years. This didn't fly with the leadership and it was dissolved. I consider it just another step toward dissolution and ruin. The organ and carillon were designed to be integrated to be used as a hybrid combination with the organ positive manual serving as the control keyboard for bells sounds. This combination was never finished because of the build down of the program. However, at the height of the development, I had bell sounds seamlessly played in order with the organ fanfares and intradas for weddings. It was amazing and many were the compliments, both written and spoken as to the absolute magnificence of the music and wedding production. I am almost certain that you will never hear this again at St. Matthew. The Carillon needs service and the church has no money for it. Actually they really don't need it now anyway sorry to say. So there you have it! No money for music to speak of and to start up weddings again would cost a fortune because no one is going to do what I did for free. This included dedicated websites, Internet marketing, custom forms, professional wedding coordination and the most important thing of all...sales personality and the ability to interact with all types of wedding clients from doctors, lawyers, tv personalities, students, computer designers to country and western singers, cowboys and ranchers and many more. St. Matt was a real and vital venue for a while...o well, decline has its charms I suppose. Enjoy while you can... and consider the metaphor below. |