Totally Off-Topic: GoFundMe for our Church

[Ray]

During Hurricane Florence, many of us in the Cape Fear region "dodged a bullet", sustaining little or no damage to our homes and businesses. St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Southport NC was not so lucky.

Our parish sustained more damage than any church in town, and in fact, more than any church in the entire diocese. Our campus has a Church Sanctuary, an administrative building built in 1893 and a 175-year-old Chapel. The short version is that – courtesy of wind and water damage, along with the growth of black mold - we have been unable to enter any of those structures since the mid-September storm.

The administrative building was heavily damaged, and all its contents, including furnishings and files - current and historic - have been entirely lost. Mitigation experts have already stripped the interior down to bare studs and it’s going to need a new roof.

The Church Sanctuary has been similarly devastated. It needs a new roof, restoration of the bell tower, mitigation of mold, etc. Currently all the interior walls in the bell tower and narthex have been removed. The altar wall needs to be taken apart and damage behind it mitigated.

The Chapel also needs a new roof and mitigation of water and mold damage. Being an historical landmark, the time and cost of those repairs will be extensive.

For two weeks, our worship was held in a large tent on the front lawn. Then, we were given the use of the Methodist Fellowship Hall for one hour between their services. Currently we are coming together in the Moose Lodge, permitting our congregation to return to two services with an adult education hour in-between. (Accordingly - and showing that "we" are the parish more than are the buildings - we have informally renamed the parish "St. Bullwinkle's".) We still do not know how long the remediation work will take, or how soon we can get back into the sanctuary.

Preliminary estimates have put the repairs in the neighborhood of $1.5-million, but we must come up with the $218,000 deductible before we see a cent of the insurance money. Our own finances and some donations by other entities are helping, but we really could use some help. If there is room in your heart and budget, please consider a donation to our GoFundMe effort.