Dear Parishioners,

Last week we celebrated an historic event in our parish’s history, our official groundbreaking for our new church.  A big thank you to all the parishioners for making this event possible, that is for giving of your time, talent, and treasure so that we could come to the point of building a new church.

The Evangelization Team spear-headed the event, getting the Pita Pit wraps, hosting the drinks, and setting up the tables and chairs as well as put them away. The Altar Society brought desserts while S & B James brought their banner, shovels, and hard hats. Thank you to Tom Hall of S & B James, Dave Thomason, and Bill Bailey who shared their hearts with us. Thank you to Fran Todor for making sure we had good sound set up and Adam Busch for live-streaming the event on our Facebook page. 

As of this writing (Mon., Sept 18), we will be finalizing our bids and then approaching the archdiocesan Building Commission, who, I hope, will approve our technical drawings and, thus be our last meeting with them.  A big thank you should be given to all the engineers, priests, and staff who make up the Building Commission.  They have an incredibly difficult work load with all the projects ongoing in the Archdiocese. Once we have firmed up the costs of our project from the bids that we have committed to, we expect to get approved for a bridge loan from the Parish Funds Trust. This fund is made up of monies invested by the archdiocesan parishes and is managed by experts working in the Pastoral Center in Portland.

Looking forward, we hope to be pouring the foundation of the new church in October. From there, several steel framed buildings will be brought in and put together to create the basic infrastructure for the new church. 

Again, thank you to all parishioners who have been helping make these events possible.  May our prayers and work be for the glory of God and the spreading of the Gospel of Christ.

Blessings,

Fr. William Holtzinger
Pastor