wysocki wrote: Logs show A BUNCH of fatal errors, mostly in /parser/parser.php. I don't see that file coming in from the update, but it must be there from my old installation.
PHP Fatal error: Array and string offset access syntax with curly braces is no longer supported in /home/clupre/covinasunriserotary.com/couch/parser/parser.php on line 490
Terry, perhaps, overwriting did not happen? Overwrite the old files with new ones from github repo.
Anyways, I suggest to stop experimenting on the LIVE site and restore the backuped /couch folder back.

Upgraded database will not be an issue

, as those upgraded bits are meant for the newest version and the older version does not look for new features in database. So, leave db as is i.e. upgraded, and restore the couch folder as it was pre-update. Finally, experiment and weed out the bugs and issues on your localhost, esp. the custom PHP code. Once everything is working as expected, rename the live server's working old couch folder to couch_old and copy the new folder in place. If something is broken on live server unexpectedly then a simple rename of the folders should make live site alive again.