Lisa Gray reports for the Houston Chronicle:
So far more than 900 families have pledged to contribute. The amount of money raised is particularly impressive given that, in keeping with church tradition, none of the buildings will be named after donors, and the largest gifts receive no flashy fanfare. “It doesn’t matter whether you give $100 or $1 million,” said [the Rev.] Russell Levenson, St. Martin’s rector. “Your name will be the same size on the plaque.”
Jackson and Ryan Architects, which designed the 1,200-seat central church building completed in 2004, has also drawn up plans for the expansion project. A new Parish Life Center will house the church’s growing contemporary services, events such as concerts, and meetings for recovery and support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous.
There’ll be a new Children’s Ministry Building; a new Music Building; and a new Pastoral Care Center to house the growing clergy team. The 1959 church building will become Christ Chapel, a 200-seat place for baptisms, funerals, weddings and other services.
As part of the expansion project, two campus buildings will be razed: a chiller at the corner of Sage and Woodway; and a building that once housed a bar owned by Sonny Bono, of the 1970s singing duo Sonny and Cher. The youth, Levenson said, have no idea who Bono was.
Building for the Ages Fly-through from St. Martin’s Episcopal Church on Vimeo.
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
