ITEMS OF INTEREST October 4, 2010 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

with contributions from Kay Campbell, Donna St. George

WHEN WILLIAM THORNTON goes to work in the morning, all he can see is a cross lifted against the sky as he swings around the steeple of First Methodist Church 100 feet above the petty concerns of the city. His work reminds him of the balancing act of his own life. "The spiritual aspect keeps me straight," Thornton said. "It helps me. It surely helps me."

Thornton might be a recovering drug addict or an exconvict. He may be just a skilled construction worker. Or a seminary student working a summer job. Tony Stratton has all of those kinds of people working for him, but the past doesn't matter.

"The Christian life is not about being labeled, identified, restricted," said Stratton, a third-generation steeplejack and a fourth-generation preacher who runs Inspired Heights, a steeple reconstruction company in Rockford, Illinois. "It's about living today to serve God. It's about hanging on to your lifeline."

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