We are overjoyed to announce the launch of a Capital Campaign, conducted jointly with our partner organization, the Sanctuary on the Green Arts, Cultural and Community Alliance (SOGA), to fund the functional restoration of the sanctuary and to repair the 19th century steeple clock.
With your support, we will again sing hymns and bow for prayer in the sanctuary on Sunday mornings. With your help, we will also fling wide the sanctuary doors at other times for concerts, theatrical performances, lectures and community events. Just imagine!
The work to be done will preserve the historic integrity and primary identity of the sanctuary as sacred space, while allowing for a wide variety of other appropriate uses. A custom-designed fabric ceiling that mimics the lines of the coffered antique plaster ceiling will provide an aesthetically pleasing effect at considerable cost savings.
Click here to view the campaign flyer with more details.
As of December 1, 2024, $167,000 had already been raised toward the campaign goal of $350,000, thanks to the generous pledges of Session and SOGA board members and early donors.
With the help of Essex County Commissioner Carlos Pomares, who is serving as Honorary Co-Chair of this campaign, we are reaching out for support from the greater Bloomfield community, including area businesses. We are also energetically researching grant opportunities. Crowdfunding will be initiated as we get closer to the finish line. While we anticipate a good deal of success from this multi-pronged approach, we know that it will be the gifts of members and friends of the church that will carry the day.
As you prayerfully plan your charitable giving, please consider assigning highest priority to this once-in-a-generation endeavor. Click here for a pledge card to complete and return to the church, or email the details of your pledge to HistoricSanctuary@bpcog.org.
You may fulfill your pledge over a 1-3 year period, or you may make an end-of-year gift in 2024 as a lump sum. You may donate on-line, with no transaction fees deducted, by clicking here.
About the 19th Century Steeple Clock
The six-tiered church steeple was constructed in 1896 to hold the clock and church bells. The clock mechanism, on the second tier of the steeple, connects to the main bell on the third tier, to the four clock faces on the fourth tier, and to four smaller bells on the fifth tier that ring the Westminster Chimes.
Manufactured by the Seth Thomas Clock Company from Thomaston, CT., the clock was installed for the 100th anniversary of the church, along with four new bells, donated in memory of Dr. and Mrs. Joseph A. Davis. The clock is unique in that it features a quarter-hour striking mechanism with four bells playing the Westminster Chimes on the quarter hour, and a fifth, larger, bell chiming the hours.
Public clocks emerged as a necessity with the industrial revolution and the development of the railroads for transportation and commerce. The Seth Thomas Clock Company set standards in durability, design, and production efficiency. Our church’s clock is one of only seven public clocks in Essex County.
Interruptions in servicing the clock during the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by the retirement of public clock expert Bob Rodgers, resulted in significant damage to the mechanism. The restoration work will cost $43,000. We have applied for a DAR Historic Preservation Grant to help cover this cost.