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Addition to church lets history dock with present
By EILEEN SCHULTE © St. Petersburg Times, published February 3, 2001 Imagine you're sailing the blue-green waters of the gulf early on a balmy weekend morning. There isn't a cloud in the sky, and the wind is blowing at 10 or 15 knots. Two-foot waves are hitting the bow, sending cool, saltwater spray onto your sunburned face.
Then it hits you: It's Sunday. You should be in church, buster. The jib up, you come around and set a course for Calvary Episcopal Church on Indian Rocks Beach, where you can tie your boat up to its new 30-foot, $6,400 dock and walk through the doors in your shorts, T-shirt and deck shoes -- just in time for the 10 a.m. service. Once inside, the Rev. Bob Wagenseil welcomes you without regard for your casual attire. He had the dock built for the boaters who want to make a brief stop while enjoying a day on the water. The structure has been finished for weeks, but on Super Bowl Sunday, parishioners filed out of the church and down to the water after services for a ceremonial blessing of the dock. "We've been holding onto this to see what the weather was going to do," Bob said. "It would not have been a (good) thing if it was 30 degrees and raining." With his congregation and a few curious neighbors gathered around, Wagenseil, the church's priest for the past six years, who is known as "Father Bob," led parishioners in a reading of Psalm 107. "Some went down to the sea in ships, and plied their trade in deep waters. They beheld the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep," the congregation recited. Then Wagenseil offered a prayer: "God our creator, your spirit moved over the face of the waters at the beginning of creation and continues to move the hearts of your people to rejoice in the beauty and wonder of the sea." He asked God to bless the dock, and asked that it be set aside as a place of refreshment, service and joy. "May it extend the welcoming arms of our city to all who come among us in peace; may it be a place of healing for those who may come here during times of crisis; and may it always point the way to that harbor of eternal blessing where all things are being made new," he prayed. After the 10-minute ceremony, church members ate a meal, then inspected a rescue boat and trucks brought by the Indian Rocks Fire Deparment, where Father Bob is a volunteer chaplain who gives comfort to those displaced by fires or who are traumatized by auto accidents. "I also do crowd control, which is kind of fun," he said. Special guests at the ceremony included Indian Rocks Mayor Robert DiNicola and Vice Mayor Joanne "Cookie" Kennedy. "I had more people come up to me and say, "How long did it take you to choreograph this?' " Wagenseil said of the beautiful day. Wagenseil, 46, is at home on the water. He lived aboard a boat years ago, and once he retires, he and his wife, P.T., hope to make their 12-year-old, 36-foot powerboat, Tehani, their home. An accomplished boater and licensed Coast Guard captain, Wagenseil and his wife motored down to Indian Rocks Beach from his home in Huntington Bay on the north shore of Long Island when he took the job at Calvary Episcopal. He said the dock was his 350-member congregation's idea, one they've been talking about for some time. It took them only weeks to raise the money necessary to begin construction. The dock fits in well with the church's history. The first church facility actually was an old Navy barge that saw action in the Pacific during World War II. In 1962, when the first church building was constructed -- complete with a dock -- the congregation beached the barge and made it into a meeting space, which they called Barge Hall. "It looked like a building," Wagenseil said. Eventually, termites decimated the barge, and it was removed in 1992. Construction of the dock is part of an ambitious plan to renovate the church and "bring the whole thing into the 21st century," Wagenseil said. He wants to "brighten and update" the church, build a children's cry room and expand classroom space. He also wants to make the dock more than a parking place for parishioners' boats. By this summer, he hopes to use it to help launch a free youth sailing program. Although he doesn't yet have a fleet of sailboats at the ready, he does own an 8-foot dinghy students can use, and the Indian Rocks Beach fire department donated life jackets they can wear. The volunteer firefighter in Bob tells him the dock can also be used to aid in water rescues. He said in the event of an emergency, a rescue boat can pick up a victim in the water and transport him or her to the dock. Once there, the victim could be wheeled to a waiting helicopter, which can land in the church parking lot, and be whisked away. Most days, the dock will be used for "free waterfront parking" for parishioners who sail to church on Saturday evenings or Sunday mornings. "After church, they can continue their voyage," he said.
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