A blessed New Year to each of you as together we continue doing God's will and leading our families, and others, closer to Him.
As you hopefully recall, when I shared my decision to end our historic new church project, I also shared that while the decision to do so was the only prudent option given the circumstances, we still faced the same challenges we did when we began: Abundance of growth and lack of space. I said then that we would continue to look for solutions that take into consideration our immediate needs as well as those projected and do so within the context of the historic inflationary construction conditions that derailed our Church for the Ages.
I'm happy to be able to report today that we have made excellent progress, better than I initially expected frankly, and as before I want to keep you in the loop as these concepts progress so that you have the opportunity to ask questions and be heard.
The growth of our parish is obvious to everyone. That growth is what led us to our last project and the space needed. Similar to that of our school, the need for additional space has only increased. We are unable to add any more weekend Masses due to our Saturday morning Mass, funerals, and weddings. We do the best that we can by setting up chairs each weekend in the cafeteria. This is still not a long-term solution nor one that inspires and draws one closer to God.
One idea is to expand our existing church space to the south, toward the rectory. We believe that by doing so we could accommodate another 200-250 worshippers at each Mass. Moreover, there is the possibility of creating a more attractive sanctuary with a rounded apse. This, of course, would be beautifully decorated, inspiring, and fitting for the Sacred Liturgy.
Our entrances and bathrooms are wholly inadequate. You already know this. These spaces require complete renovation. What you likely don't know is that the sewer pipes, which run the length of the church building and under the parking lot, are made of clay and are collapsing. This necessitates a plumber call multiple times a year to clear these drains. Sewer backups are a big mess and a constant problem at St. Andrew.
Our current plan envisions new entrances to the church on the west and the east, along with new bathrooms. We are studying alternative ideas for the narthex area to provide a spiritual space and larger gathering space. Finally, the sacristy is woefully inadequate for vesting and storage of sacred items used at Mass. So expansion here is also necessary.
While perhaps lost in the shadows of our spectacular Church for the Ages, a significant portion of our original project was critical additional classroom space in the basement of the new church. We are nearly out of classroom space. We continue to have waiting lists to get into the school because of space limitation. That means that we have young families moving to St. Andrew because of what we are doing here, and we have turned some away because there is no room in the school. The current and projected demographics show continued growth. We're baptizing an increasing number of infants each year, 81 last year alone. These are all good things and we need to prepare for our growing parish families. Our goal is to have two classes per grade and to accommodate our specials classes as well as Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) and its Atriums.
We are considering expanding the school to the west (toward Antioch Rd) to include four additional classrooms, plus common areas, and new bathrooms. This addition will be two stories. With the addition of these classrooms and with the modification of the existing space within our school building, we will gain an additional five classrooms. By doing this, we will solve our critical and immediate needs as well as our projected needs as our parish continues to grow.
The great advantage of expanding the school to the West will be the fact that learning will be uninterrupted no matter when we begin. Our hope is to start this summer, but no matter when we begin, we will be able to build and complete this addition and then remove a section of the interior wall, which is currently the exterior wall, to connect the new space.
Right now, our church ideas are much less developed than our school ideas and are frankly less urgent. We need to tackle our school expansion first, which should be relatively straightforward while continuing to brainstorm together about our church expansion and improvements. And as this is in the early stages there are still some diocesan processes and approvals with which to engage. At this point, we have a rough, conceptual outline of our plan. The orange areas are the expansion of the church, the yellow are the expansion of the school, and the purple are restrooms.
Of course, we will need our parish and school community to support these initiatives. The campaign will be considerably less ambitious than the last one when your generosity broke every capital campaign record in the diocese. I know that we will be able to raise all of the funds needed to complete these critical projects and I know that they will be both functional and beautiful.
As always, I will keep you posted as plans develop. Thank you for your support of our unique community, bound by love, and driven to be the very best we can be for the Lord and His Kingdom.