Jesus Christ: yesterday, today, and forever!

After many years of sacrificing, saving, planning, permitting, and working we are finally ready to move into the addition on the back of the church! On the weekend of April 24-25, there will be tours of our new addition after all the Masses, so stick around after Mass. When I return from my sabbatical in August, we’ll have Archbishop Etienne come and formally dedicate the space (I’ll be gone from April 26 thru August 3).

The new addition has added 3162 square feet of space to our church. It includes an adoration chapel that parishioners will be able to access 24 hours a day, 6 days a week; another sacristy (room that is used for preparing for Mass as well as supplies); a large meeting room that can be divided in two (this space is important to us for additional meeting/classroom space, as well as an area that the choir can practice in); additional storage space; two unisex bathrooms; and a floral room where all those beautiful flowers you see at Mass will come from. A blueprint of what I just described is on the wall in the narthex; check it out if you haven’t already.

The north parking lot is already clearing out and we can resume using most of it now, at least for handicapped drivers. Vehicles that picked up and dropped people off in the north parking lot, before the pandemic began, will need to wait a few more days before our access to 172nd Avenue resumes.

A Quick Refresher

In 2005-2008 when the church was being planned and built, the price of construction rose faster than we could build, so to keep costs within our budget, we shortened the back wall behind the sanctuary, to stay within our budget. We moved into the church in 2008. In the spring of 2015, Holy Redeemer Parish launched a five year capital campaign called Realizing Hope. There were two goals to that capital campaign: 1) eliminate the parish debt that we incurred in the building of our church, and 2) complete the back of the church by building out the area behind the sanctuary up to 30 feet. The first part of Realizing Hope was achieved on October 1, 2017 when we burned our mortgage; and now we’re coming to the end of our second goal, completing the back of the church.

Costs

The addition that we just built has cost us over $4 million dollars (we don’t have final numbers yet as construction is not complete). We were able to pay off $2.5 million through savings and redirecting some of our monthly income, yet we still anticipate a loan of around $1.7 million that we will have to pay off. We’ll keep paying on that loan through the allocation of some of our monthly income and Annual Catholic Appeals through the years. In an ideal world, we’d like to be debt free by 2025.

Adoration Chapel

While we should be able to use the adoration chapel in the coming month, it won’t be finished for a while yet. We still need to lay the tile and have the tabernacle, monstrance, and pews custom built; it will take months for those items to be in place. Furthermore, we need to figure out an overall artistic theme for the adoration chapel and the church; we don’t want mismatched statues, paintings, icons, etc. To that end, in September, I will hold a couple of town hall meetings to share a vision for the adoration chapel and church, and commission a contest for artistic renderings. Then we’ll go from there. To note: we will continue to have 24 hour adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the Church from Friday to Saturday morning; because there isn’t enough space in the adoration chapel for all the adorers during that time; and because that time of adoration is an offering to God of the whole parish. During Friday – Saturday adoration, the adoration chapel will be locked, so if you’re coming to visit Jesus during that time, plan to do so in the church where you’ll find Jesus on the altar waiting for you.

Thanksgiving

I need to take a moment to thank some key players in the completion of our church. Our benefactors: all the people who have contributed financially to this project. The building committee: a group of dedicated parishioners who have been faithfully meeting monthly, for years, overseeing this project and doing some of the work as well. And finally Ed Brands our Administrator. This project wouldn’t be happening at this time, as big in scope, and certainly not as inexpensively as it has without him. God has blessed Ed, and Ed has blessed us with his selfless sacrifices and never ending persistence. Ed, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for being there for us.

Finally God. “In vain does the builder labor if he doesn’t labor in the Lord.” For those of us with intimate knowledge of this project, we can all attest to the presence and favor of the Lord upon it. We all need to thank Almighty God for all the good He has done and continues to do for us. We are a blessed parish, more so than most. Please take the time today to prayerfully thank Our Lord for His providence over this parish.

The Annual Catholic Appeal

Each year at this time we pause and consider all the good that is accomplished because of your support of the Annual Catholic Appeal (ACA): the homeless are sheltered, retired priests and nuns are cared for, our seminarians are prepared to serve us as our future priests, and so much more. If you haven’t already done so, I pray you will join me in supporting the Catholic Church in Western Washington by giving to the 2021 Annual Catholic Appeal. The support of every parish is critical to the success of the Archdiocese and its many ministries. Our combined Archdiocesan & Parish goal for this year is $177,583.

When we meet our Annual Catholic Appeal goal, we will fulfill our responsibility to support over 60 ministries of the Archdiocese, and we will be able to set aside much needed funds to pay down our debt on the just completed addition on the back of the church. It's your generosity that will make the ministry of the Archdiocese and paying down on our loan a reality. I hope to be able to count on you and your good stewardship.

Every year I ask every household in the parish to pledge 1% of your annual income or $1 a day ($365) over the course of the next year. Some of us can pledge more than that, and we really depend on you to do that if you can, yet every gift will make a difference so please pledge something. If you haven’t already contributed this year to the ACA, please do so today by either responding to the letter you received from the Archbishop or me in the mail, or go here to make your commitment. For those of you who have already pledged something, thank you!

Finally this: bequests, please remember Holy Redeemer Parish in your will. Because we are a new parish, we don’t get as many bequests as most parishes our size, yet bequests are so helpful in paying off our debts and funding our many large projects – especially our future multipurpose building. If you haven’t yet put Holy Redeemer in your will, please do so. It is a gift that keeps on giving long after we’ve parted this world, a gift that generations of Holy Redeemer parishioners will be eternally grateful for.

For the Glory of God and the Sanctification of Souls,