Heavy machinery – ah, we workers in the Lord’s vineyard have a special affinity to this. Perhaps this is so because much of our daily work centers on spiritual matters that are just so different from a decent back hoe or a nice round tanker truck. Well, on Jun 9th, we had all of this and much more at church, as PREFERRED TANK SERVICES began the work of retiring our underground oil tank.
Unfortunately, the task proved more difficult than anticipated, and we ended up with Plan B – for which Consistory had wisely prepared. The tank will now be excavated, and we’ll have to deal with some remediation costs. At the same time, however, we hope for support from a program funded by the State. But be this as it may – the end of our oil tank marks the end of an era. It is clear that we now have left behind so much more than a mere heating method. We have left behind the Modern Age that was built on oil.
What do I mean by that? Very simply, from the moment the Industrial Revolution took off, it required oil, first as lubrication for the new steam engines, and later as fuel for all sorts of gas-guzzlers. Oil was a staple of Modernity even before we tapped into the planet’s reservoir of fossil oil – think of the whaling industry, Nantucket, and Moby Dick, and you realize what we did before we could exploit the oil fields in Texas or the Middle East.
First Reformed Church seems to have had enough of that! We now heat with natural gas. This is cleaner, cheaper, and a clear sign that we have made it, finally, into the 21st Century!
A big thank you goes out to Julius Fekete, Ellen Hamilton and Jim Hance, and many others who have all helped with the transition.
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