Greetings in Christ!
I want to start right off with a building project update. Let’s review.
In 2016, Holy Family raised $4.1 million for the Diocesan Fundraiser Witness to Hope. Of that $4.1, we received $2.7. Out of that $2.7, a plan was created to restore the Church, introducing much-needed practical elements to our building (handicap access to bathrooms, worship area, modernization of sound and heating/cooling, etc.), as well as enhancing the dignity of our worship space.
In the end, the plan that was created came to $4.2 million and began rising right away as costs for building and materials were rising. By the time I arrived in 2018, the cost of the plan was somewhere in the range of $4.6 million.
We then embarked on a fundraiser to see if we could move our $2.7 million to $4.6 million. We were not able to hit that goal, but we did get to a grand total of $3.5 million pledged to renovate our Church.
Working with our architect, I offered an idea to go in a different direction in the hopes that we could hit our necessary needs but stay within the $3.5 million target.
In the March 24th bulletin, I offered a timeline for you all and it contained this section:
“April 14th: Fr. Joe will make handout for our bulletin on the 14th (Palm Sunday) that hopefully tells us we can afford the new plan. (Come, Holy Spirit!)”
Well, we are to that point now, but I’m afraid that our bulletin company requires me to turn in this article before we have the information I hoped to give you. I’m sorry about that; it’s not something I have control over.
So, in the next couple days after I submit this article, I will have the numbers, share them with the building committee and, God willing, present it to the first committee that we’ll need to run it by in the Diocese.
That should allow me to have concrete information to give to you all in our next bulletin, which is EASTER SUNDAY by the way: praise God!
Please pray for our efforts. God has given us a mission that we frankly can’t put off and I know He has a plan for us. We should all know soon whether or not we will be able to afford beginning construction on our Church this year…Come, Holy Spirit!
Through the intercession of St. Joseph the Worker,
fjk
