Dear People of St. James’,
About a decade ago, our 2014 Master Plan envisioned attractive, permanent, bilingual (English/Spanish) signage throughout our campus in order to signal welcome to the community (and help people find their way around). At that time, St. James’ was figuring out how to pay electricity and insurance and keep the doors open, and it turns out that signage is expensive. However, this idea was not forgotten, and it was resurfaced by the Vestry and the Arts and Identity committee about three years ago.
We decided to make it a priority, because we wanted people to know about other organizations doing great work on our campus like Child Inc. Early Head Start program and Welcome Table. We wanted people to know, especially during a time when Latinos have been scape-goated and have been on the receiving end of rhetorical, economic, and political violence, that this is a place of prayer, solace, and real community, as well as a place that can tend to other basic human needs. We wanted to say to our neighborhood, “Here is a church that has chosen inclusion and a multicultural vision of the kingdom of God.” Come and see that we mean it, and join in the work of living into that vision nurtured by our courageous founders and the generations that followed them.
After two years of work, we have completed this signage project (Hallelujah!), and it really does what we hoped. This week, I have been thinking a lot about Ms. Evelyn Meeks who donated generously so that we could put up the initial signage as we found our place on this campus back in 2007. She wanted us to be known to our neighbors, and it also mattered to her that St. James’ be known as a Christian community walking in the courage of its founders. Her gift also funded the Founders monument with its beautiful cross. As we designed the new signage we took this intention of hers seriously as we incorporated crosses into the design, along with a stained glass element that hearkens back to the stained glass windows between our sanctuary and narthex from St. James’ second location on E. MLK. I have also been thinking about John Butler, of blessed memory, who was one of my first Junior Wardens. John believed deeply in the spirit and message of St. James’, and he was passionate about the need for good signage. He used to tell me, “Austin needs St. James’, even if they don’t know it yet, so let’s invite them in!” The new signage is not quite of the can-be-seen-for-miles scale that John Butler envisioned due to the strictures of city zoning, but I think he would be proud of us for getting this done in a way that fits the vision.
As I mentioned above, signage is an expensive thing, and normally it would be part of a larger capital campaign. However, we were able to fund this project through a generous Diocese of Texas Cain Grant alongside some individual donations and funds set aside by the Vestry from end-of-year surpluses in 2023 and 2024. As we close the books on the project, there is a modest remainder that will come from our future maintenance fund if it is not otherwise covered. Money is tight this year due to other maintenance issues, so if you would like to donate to help cover the signage remainder or just to bolster our operating funds that have been hit by ice storms and insurance rate hikes, your generosity would be welcomed. In the last several years, Cain Grants and government grants have helped us fund signage, security improvements like building access controls and outside cameras, our camera and audio system in the sanctuary, painting and sidewalk repair, and large AC replacements without spending down our savings or operating funds. We will continue to be savvy about grant funding so that as many of your dollars as possible can be dedicated to directly funding our mission in the community.
There are a lot of people that I need to thank who have been a part of this work. At the top of that list are our Parish Administrator Aimee Estep and Steve Kraal. Steve brought a lot of knowledge and experience to this work from his work at UT, and Aimee oversaw the project as a whole. Teresa Chang, Riley Carruthers, Sharon Bennett, Jim Crosby, Mark Mitchell, Harrison Eppright, Jill LaCour, and Steve Kraal served on our signage committee alongside staff members. Input came from many members of our Spanish-speaking community as we strove to come to some consensus related to questions of “So, how do you communicate _______ in Spanish?” One of the beautiful things about Spanish is that there might not be final, clear agreement about that because of regional variations and preferences, but we all did our best. I would like to thank all of our junior wardens, Vestry Administration committee members, and Vestry members who have seen this project through to the end. Frauke Bartels of Endlos Design and Ten400 did the design and fabrication. Many, many thanks to all!
Our work of living into all that our signage proclaims and the dream of God, which is even more expansive, continues.
Rev. Eileen
