Christ is among us!

The theme of our centennial year has been Heaven on Earth. We believe God reveals Himself to us in a special way in the Church building. It is also heaven because we gather as a loving family in our Church for worship and our hall for social time. “Where two or three are gathered in my name,” promises Jesus,“I am in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).

For over fifty years, we have gathered in the Church and hall that Archbishop Joseph Raya and parishioners made financial sacrifices to build. Later, Father Frank expanded the hall with a kitchen. These facilities have served us well. But the time has come to make changes, updates, and renovations to our aging facilities. By doing so, we honor their legacy, their gift to us, and we continue their work by building upon their accomplishments and by expanding their vision. Just as they did, we too can take a bold step toward tomorrow...today.

We created a Building Committee which discussed our parish’s needs based on many meetings as well as the results of surveys. Several things became crystal clear:

•   The current hall is neither large enough nor adequate to meet our needs today.

•   Classroom and meeting space is very limited and religious education classes suffer because of it.

•   The current Church has served us well, but a new, larger Church is somewhere in our future.

•   There are critical infrastructure and safety needs that have to be addressed such as roof, plumbing, electrical, drainage and general facility safety.

With a better understanding of our needs, we engaged CTSM Architects. They helped us further clarify needs and consider every viable option. After much prayer, the twenty members of the Building Committee unanimously discerned what they believe, and I fully concur, is a bold new beginning...a Master Plan for the future. We saw that consensus as the working of the Holy Spirit. The plan is divided into three phases and spans the next thirty years.

Parish Hall Reno, New Classroom Space, and Connecting Foyer ($7m)

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1)    Renovate and expand the Parish Hall to seat 450

The benefit? Among others, we will have space large enough for big wedding receptions, social functions, and the festival. Currently, we can comfortably seat only 165. With this expansion, we more than double our seating.

2)    Repurpose areas and construct a suite of religious education classrooms

Our children will have clean, modern, and well-equipped religious education rooms on the same side of the street as the Church and on the same level. Children will no longer be at risk crossing a busy, unpredictable 16th Ave. Further, with many more meeting rooms, parishioners and groups will no longer have to compete for limited meeting space.

3)    Renovate and expand bathrooms on both levels, upstairs and down.

With the growth of our congregation over the years, having adequate and accessible restroom facilities continues to be a challenge which this plan solves.

4)    Build a new foyer connecting both the church and the hall

Convenience results with this enhancement, especially in inclement weather. Further, the elevator and stairwell will provide better and easier access to the church and hall for everyone.

(5)   Infrastructure Needs

Address all critical infrastructure needs of the church to ensure we have a strong, safe church for many years to come.

In preparing for our Centennial display, I was delighted to find someone had bound and preserved the weekly Church bulletins from the time when Archbishop Joseph Raya was pastor. On Thomas Sunday, April 21, 1963, the front cover of the bulletin had this quote:

“Tire not of new beginnings…build your life never upon regret, always upon resolve.”

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With this Master Plan, St. George has resolved to make “A Bold New Beginning.” Therefore, I am thrilled and excited to invite you to join the Building Committee and me, as well as the staff and lay leaders, and together let us honor the legacy of Archbishop Joseph Raya and St. George’s first parish families by following their example of sacrifice and making a bold, new beginning for the future of our beloved Church.
 

Boldly into the next hundred years,
Father Justin