Tempting but prohibited - Spaces behind MOJO eatery in Tolomato parking lot are mostly reserved.

A survey seeks input on viable recommendations for parking in the historic areas of downtown, while the city's parking division gears up to ticket cars that have found convenient - but illegal - parking spots.

The survey, part of a study for the Reconnecting the Castillo & the Bayfront program funded through the Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks grant program, is being conducted by the Marquis Halback design firm, and you'll find it here.

Meanwhile some folks, including diners at the new MOJO BBQ on Cordova Street, have found convenient parking right behind the eatery in the Tolomato lot. Problem is, of the 84 spaces only 17 are public metered spaces, the balance marked reserved for area business and B&B employees and guests.

The city is stepping up enforcement of those spaces it rents to the businesses.

   When Mrs. Julia Jackson moved to St. Augustine from the Bahamas, where the Episcopal Church had great success in the Black community, she began preaching wherever space was available. In 1893, the Florida Diocese reported the first Black Episcopal congregation in St. Augustine - 20 members meeting in a rented building.

The African-American congregation named their new Episcopal church after Saint Cyprian (200-258) of Carthage in northern Africa, whose life bears a striking resemblance to that of Saint Augustine (354¬430), also of Africa.

   In 1899 Mrs. Emma White of Trinity Parish heard the St. Cyprian's congregation singing hymns in a store-front and embarked on a campaign to provide them a home. She donated a lot on the corner of today's Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue and Lovett Street, solicited donations from friends in Florida and Connecticut, and provided building plans which resembled her own house and church in Connecticut.

   The Carpenter Gothic church, with its steeply-pitched roof, heart-of-pine interior and diamond-shaped windows, became an immediate treasure. The local newspaper called it "very comfortable and churchly," and went on to say, "It is a great day for the colored people, especially those who have been brought up in the Episcopal church but for lack of one attended the services of other denominations, and may now worship in their own."

   By the 1950s, many of St. Cyprian's members were successful attorneys, doctors, dentists, school principals and teachers. In the decades following the civil rights movement in St. Augustine, few of the children who grew up in St. Cyprian's remained in the church. By 1990 the landmark was nearly falling down on the few remaining worshippers in the pews.

   Long-time Trinity members Margie Rahner, Mike Strock and The Rev. Deena Galantowicz applied for historic and other grants and rallied support to save St. Cyprian's. 

   During the first decade of the 2000s, as the national Episcopal Church wrestled with the polarizing issues of gender and sexual orientation recognition and inclusion in the Church, a substantial portion of St. Cyprian's parishioners left the Episcopal Church and St. Cyprian's.

   Patiently, over time and guided by the example and leadership of Reverend Galantowicz, the remaining St. Cyprian's parishioners, committed to the Episcopal Church and its position of inclusion, resolved to actively and intentionally address the schism and rebuild the congregation and its ministry.

   Today "Father Ted" Voorhees, Jr. and Associate "Pastor Deena" guide the church with a vision for "a place for neighborhood and community activities" in a Commons on the church grounds, with the support of longtime parishioners like Dr. Dorothy Israel, honored last Sunday with dedication of an open-air chapel in her name in that Commons.