Today is the day. This Sunday, October 13, 2024 is the final Sunday that we will have Mass as a St. James Catholic Community in this space we know it. Next Sunday, October 20, 2024, we will have Mass in the Parish Center/Gym and the following week daily Mass will be in Mercy Conference Room starting October 21. This will continue for 8 months until June 20, 2025.
During this coming week, we will continue to have Mass in the church, but we will be moving everything out of the church into storage or for use for Masses in the Mercy Conference Room and the gym. Our construction company, Garbutt, will be setting up the staging areas in the parking lot and in the church. The staging area will consume some of the parking spaces. They will also help us take down the precious things we are going to store and return to the church – our Crucifix, the statues of Mary and Joseph and our beautiful Stations of the Cross. The icons of Mary and Jesus and the Divine Mercy Image will be taken down and preserved so that we can use them in other spaces in our facility.
Work will continue the next week, and things will begin to happen at the church – pews being removed and scaffolding going up! The first part of November, we begin with the school! The access road behind the school will be constructed beginning in November and will be completed before school returns from Christmas break in January of 2025.
These projects mark a new chapter in the history of St. James Parish! What an exciting time to be a parishioner of St. James! I am blessed to be here with you and go with you through all of this! Come on! Join in the adventure of what Almighty God is doing here in our parish!
Now for some bad news: while Sunday Mass is in the Parish Center/Gym for 8 months, we will not have coffee, lemonade, and doughnuts. I know this will be a shock to many, especially the younger in our family, but we will suspend this delectable after mass treat while we are not in the Church and Narthex.
Please pray for the success of our Charging Forward in Faith and Education capital campaign, for successful fundraising and for the projects!
St. James the Less, pray for us and all our endeavors and plans!
May the Lord Jesus bless you and your families abundantly this week!
~ Fr. Daniel Firmin