A PROJECT OF RENEWAL:
CONSTRUCTION STARTING SOON AT ST. C!
JUNE 3, 2026

 

Dear parishioners of St. Christopher’s Church,

Shortly after June 15, construction will start on our capital improvements. The biggest part of this project will be installation of a geothermal heating/cooling system in our buildings, including supply of fresh air and an overhaul of our electrical system.

This report will summarize what will be happening this summer, and what the schedule looks like. (Not much will be happening with the Sanctuary, so in all probability, services will continue there.) Then it will summarize how and why we got here, and how the financial side of this will work. You, parishioners of St. Christopher’s, have enthusiastically and generously supported our capital campaign and deserve to know as much as you have patience for! We also welcome any questions you may have.

Before getting in the weeds, we pause to thank Hillary Raining, whose vision we are carrying out, and our departed friend and mentor Perry Pepper, co-chair and major influence on this project, who would love to be in the mix right now.

WHAT WILL BE HAPPENING THIS SUMMER

This summer, starting around June 15, our design/builder GreenerU will supervise four major subs in installing a geothermal heating/cooling system in our buildings. Wells will be drilled in our parking lot area. Tubes will be installed in the wells to carry water down into the ground and back, having absorbed the constant temperature of the ground (around 51 degrees). Ground-conditioned water from the wells is to be piped into our building and then piped to heat pumps to be installed mostly in attic spaces around our campus. Next to the heat pumps, air exchange units will be installed to efficiently supply fresh air. Construction in our buildings will entail some intrusions into walls, breaking through ceilings, and restoration afterward.

At the same time, our electrical system will be upgraded from the present single-phase (basically residential) system we have been jury-rigging since 1950, to the three-phase commercial system we need. This will entail a new pole and transformer on the Righters Mill side of the church, new connections, and some new electrical equipment inside. We will be preserving equipment that is still useful, such as most of the wiring.

We will be installing a new standby generator to give our church more resilience in future emergencies. We also intend to refurbish the Parish Hall, get a new shed (the present one is falling down), and possibly do a couple other projects.

SCHEDULE

Construction will start with removal of the asphalt of most of the parking lot shortly after June 15. All summer, parking will still be available in the circle in front of the church, in the driveway to the Rectory, and on the grass as needed. Not much work involves the Sanctuary, and we anticipate it will be available all summer. But other building areas will be closed off as required:

Day School June 19

Offices July 3

Kitchen/Parish Hall July 17

Library July 24

…and re-opened upon completion, starting with the Day School in late August, offices (Sep 7-11), kitchen/Parish Hall (Sep 14-18), and Library (Sep 14-25). We are hoping to turn the system on in late October. We all have to understand that while the above schedule has been constructed to be realistic, stuff happens and there may be changes.

HOW WE GOT HERE

All this is primarily driven by the Vestry’s decision, last fall, to install a geothermal system. That decision was made after a great deal of study led by Perry Pepper (until his untimely death), Elizabeth Lovett, Frank Meloni, Bill Thomas, and Tom Allen. There were two key moments/decisions. The first was the decision whether we need an air-conditioning system (as opposed to the present A/C in the Sanctuary and 18 noisy, inefficient window units). We decided “yes,” primarily because in the long term (our frame of reference), hot weather is occupying more and more of the calendar, and our buildings should always be usable. Once we said “yes” to that, any notion of reviving our obsolete gas-burning system for heat, and adding a system of outside compressors for cool, was impractical: expensive to build and run, noisy, ugly…a short-term fix at best. If we are to have compressors, they should be modern heat pumps, capable of both cooling and heating. And it’s time to stop burning gas.

Heat pump systems are of basically two kinds. The first kind is air-sourced: heat pumps sit outside and do the big job of taking both summer (say 90 degrees) and winter (say 25 degrees) air and producing the 68 degrees (or whatever) wanted inside. That’s actually the usual modern solution, but it takes a lot of electricity every month, and would entail large, noisy compressor-type machines sitting on pads outside our buildings.  The second kind of heat-pump system is geothermal: heat pumps sit inside and do the comparatively easy job of taking ground-conditioned water (at around 51 degrees) and producing air at the desired inside temperature. A geothermal system is the better alternative in every way….electricity use, noise, aesthetics, impact on the environment, expected life of system….except one: initial expense. Because you have to drill wells, a geothermal system is more expensive to install.

For most of 2025, we operated on the assumption that a geothermal system was too expensive, and we anticipated installing an air-sourced system. We were aware of the extremely generous credits available under federal law for geothermal, but we (and many others) expected those to go away in the Big Beautiful Bill last summer. But then, that bill took away credits and incentives for solar and wind, but left the geothermal credits untouched. That changed the calculus for us and led to our second key moment/decision.  The geothermal credit (30% of total project cost) and the American-made-equipment credit (which we are qualifying for…an additional 10% of total project cost) take the net cost of geothermal to basically the same as the net cost of the (much-worse) air-sourced system. We have done our homework on the viability of the geothermal credits, including consulting with the national accounting firm which specializes in this area, and which will be filing our claim for the credits.

Last fall we presented a great deal of information on alternatives and costs to the Vestry, which resolved that we should proceed with the geothermal option.

We had previously had some information-exchange with a design/build firm called GreenerU, which has been involved in installing sustainable HVAC at many universities and non-profits, including geothermal at Swarthmore College. A project we have followed closely, because it has substantial similarities with our situation (albeit ahead of us by about a year), has been the geothermal project at Wellesley Village Church in Wellesley, MA in which GreenerU has been the design/build partner….with successful completion and satisfied (“enthusiastic” would be a better word) leaders at the church. After the Vestry’s decision last fall, we re-initiated contact with GreenerU and started through a process which has involved engineering, design, a test well, an extensive bidding process, and (as of May 22) a final contract for construction. GreenerU is our design/builder and will be supervising four major subs: mechanical, electrical, drilling, and general construction.

GreenerU’s superintendent on site is Matt Karp. You may be at church and run into Matt; you should introduce yourself.  He’s very capable and you’ll like him. He and our excellent Sexton John Abitabilo are working together a lot.

PAYING FOR IT

You’re going to be looking at some big numbers here. As you do, please bear in mind that—if we’re planning for the future rather than doing some fix-up for a few years, leaving us again where we are now—this is expensive territory and it is subject to greater inflation than what we’ve all experienced as consumers. And, the initial expenditure will be greatly reduced by credits, as discussed below.

The geothermal project (including electrical overhaul and fresh-air supply) will initially cost around $5.2 million. Most of that is encompassed in our design/build contract with GreenerU. We will pay that amount over the balance of 2026. In 2027 we will file for two credits—the 30% credit for geothermal projects and the 10% credit for using equipment sufficiently made in America—in the amount of about $2 million.

The credit for geothermal projects was part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Its benefits were extended to non-profits (so that the credits are cash, rather than a credit against taxes due) by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. To the surprise of many, these credits survived the Big Beautiful Bill and are still law. There is no realistic path for that law to be changed so as to affect our project.

In addition to the geothermal project, we are getting a robust backup generator for future resilience in emergencies, and we are planning to refurbish the Parish Hall (better lighting, some painting, etc.), get a new shed, and maybe a couple other things. Total costs will be around $5.6 million. There will be a time delay before receipt of the credits, but the net expenditure should be around $3.6 million.

In our Capital Campaign to date, we have raised just shy of $3.5 million (including interest earned, and after our $100,000 contribution to the St. James Welcome Table in 2025 from Capital Campaign funds). Those are funds paid. In addition, based on existing pledges, we have around $200,000 coming in 2026 and $200,000 coming in 2027. Recognizing the time delay before receipt of the credits, we have planned to borrow (or spend from the Endowment) $1 or $1.2 million as “bridge” financing. All the above get us to within $500,000 to $700,000 of where we need to be for the initial expenditures. Based on conversations with parishioners in the course of the campaign, we are confident that that amount can and will be raised—without, it’s important to say, diminishing anybody’s understanding of the need for regular pledges, every year, for operating expenses.

If all goes as expected, once we get the credits in 2027 we’ll be able to repay the “bridge” financing and have a good amount left over to beef up the Endowment. For that to happen, it is true that a lot has to go right; but we have confidence in the construction plan and in GreenerU, and the credits are the law.

STEPPING BACK

Hillary’s charge to Perry Pepper and Tom Allen, about two years ago, was to develop a capital program for three purposes: (1) physical improvements (and we all knew HVAC was at the top of the list); (2) Outreach; and (3) Endowment. For the Outreach component, we decided on a substantial contribution to one project where we could really make a difference. We selected the St. James Welcome Table because it is terrific and because the federal government’s cutbacks were almost crippling some of its operations. We donated $100,000 to the Welcome Table in 2025.

Because of the generosity and commitment of our congregation….more than 100 families or individuals have pledged $3.85 million, of which almost $3.5 million has been paid….we can see our way clear to beefing up the Endowment. The credits we receive in 2027 should more than pay back the bridge financing discussed above, and the excess, which should be $6-800,000, will go to the Endowment. That will require a bit more fundraising now, but we are confident that will be accomplished.

It’s revealing about our congregation that we have received such very generous support for an HVAC project that, for the most part, nobody will see once it is done. It’s not like we’re building a new building. But you have understood the necessity of this. Your Vestry has also understood that while short-term fixes would be cheaper in the short run, it would be unreasonable to decline the opportunity to have 40% of our HVAC project costs paid by the federal government (in a project that very much fulfills the intentions of the federal laws cited above), in order for us to build the right system for our church. Besides the electricity-cost savings and the environmental and aesthetic advantages, the well-field we build is a permanent (referred to as 100-year) asset. In 10 or 40 years, as greener energy sources become available to PECO and to us, we’ll be in position to reduce our carbon footprint even more and maybe eliminate it.

We’re also breaking ground, demonstrating the feasibility of geothermal for a medium-size enterprise. We’ve attracted the interest of PA Interfaith Power and Light, the Diocese, and other organizations.

It’s risky to name names in this context, but it should be said that our Sexton John Abitabilo has been working very effectively on this project, and he’ll have big responsibilities this summer. Our Parish Administrator Shawna Minnucci and our Day School Director Brooke Cordes (both of whom will be temporarily displaced) have been participating in the planning process closely, and contributing very substantial input.

Elizabeth Lovett, architect and our Property Chair, is our prime representative in dealing with the construction. Frank Meloni (former Property Chair) and Bill Thomas (retired architect and Vestry member) have fully participated in the planning. Our Wardens Nancy Purcell (former Rector’s Warden), Peg Schofield (Rector’s Warden), and March Pepper (Accounting Warden) have actively monitored and participated in this process. We are fortunate to have this talent and dedication in our congregation.

Please do not hesitate to discuss this with any of us, or ask any questions. Many thanks for your support.

Tom Allen, Capital Campaign Chair