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Rite of Blessing a New Church Site,
August 12, 2006 |
In 2002 we were surrounded by nothing but open desert up to the mountains. The population of Surprise was around 36,000. It grew to over 100,000 by 2010.
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 Pictures
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Ground Blessing - August 12, 2006 Slide Show: Raising the Dome, 6/25/08 Slide Show: Around the Church, 6/26/08 Future additions to the interior - May 2009 Slide Presentation to the Parish - Dec. 9, 2009
Design CCBG Architects, Phoenix Liturgical Environs, Phoenix Parish Building Committee Parish Sacred Arts Committee Construction Team CCBG Architects, Phoenix ROWLAND Companies, Phoenix
Documents Pertinent to Designing the Church Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani, 2001. General Instruction of the Roman Missal Redemptionis Sacramentum, 2004 Instruction on Certain Matters to Be Observed or to Be Avoided Regarding the Most Holy Eucharist Sacramentum Caritatis, 22 Feb.2007 The Sacrament of Charity
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| Construction |
Bullet Dates
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| Our History |
Our parish history began when our area was still part of Santa Teresita Parish in El Mirage and of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Sun City West whose pastor, Fr. Moynihan arranged for the first Masses at Happy Trails Resort in 1988 on Saturdays at 4:00PM. A Sunday Mass was then added at 9:00AM in Sun Village and in 1990 a third Mass at 11:00AM in Arizona Traditions Community. Retired priests took care of the spiritual needs as the three communities started to build the local Catholic community and raise money for a new parish. Religious education programs for the children began under the leadership of Margaret and Mike Planeta in their home with guidance from Fr. David Kelash, pastor of Santa Teresita Parish. Most Reverend Thomas J. O’Brien chose the name, St. Clare of Assisi and established the parish on July 1, 2000. He appointed Fr. John Coleman as the founding pastor. For ten months three weekend Masses were held at the Kingswood Parke Elementary School in Surprise. Later, in the summer of 2001, two temporary buildings were placed on 12.5 acres owned by the Diocese of Phoenix at the corner of Bell Road and Cotton Lane. The larger building seated 480 people for Mass and the smaller building became the offices and conference rooms. The larger building also served many other purposes including our religious education programs. Fr. Hans P. Ruygt was appointed by Bishop O’Brien to lead the parish on July 1, 2002 and to carry out a building program. Thousands of parishioners rallied together to raise funds and to assess the needs of the parish. They determined that the first need was for a permanent church. They conducted several capital campaigns. On August 12, 2006 the day after the Feast of our patroness, St. Clare of Assisi, Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted, Bishop of Phoenix, gathered the parishioners, with Fr. Coleman, Fr. Ruygt and several other priests and deacons and civic leaders for the Blessing and Groundbreaking for the new church. Site work and grading were completed in 2007 and the parking lot was expanded. Construction on the church began in January 2008. Meanwhile the parish numbers grew rapidly reaching 2600 parish families and 500 children in the religious education programs for children and teens. Many other lay ministries also flourished. Hundreds of people had to sit outside listening to ground speakers for Saturday and Sunday Masses on many weekend because they didn’t fit inside the church. It was a glorious day when parishioners moved into the new church and celebrated the first Mass on Christmas Eve 2008 at 4:00PM. We had no permanent furnishings and no tile on the floor but we finally had a roof over our heads and were able to accommodate the large crowds which often reached 1000 people. The city limited us to seating 1400 people because parking will need to expand again before we can seat the full 2000 people.
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Master Plan |
Our current Master Plan includes:
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Financial Status
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Our First Capital Campaign got started in February 2002 and received commitments from parishioners to pay their pledge in 3-5 years. With the help of a professional fund raising consultant, we made every effort to meet personally with every registered parishioner. We encourage everyone to make a pledge to the campaign so that we can estimate our budget for construction projects. Pledges do not obligate the donor if their financial situation changes, but pledges are essential to planning and to getting a loan. We deeply appreciate the sacrifices donors make to help us build for our current needs and for future generations who seek spiritual nourishment in St. Clare of Assisi Catholic Community. We started a Second Capital Campaign in the Fall of 2004. We conducted this campaign without the help of a professional fund raising consultant and had some success. We have paid off our parish debt to the Diocese of Phoenix which loaned us money to establish the parish. On July 1, 2003, we paid off $850,000 of our $1.2 million debt to the diocese for buildings and properties. We paid off the loan for the rectory, the full cost of the property, the initial startup loan and a large portion of the site development costs and the cost of our administration building. We paid the remaining debt of $334,000 in February 2005. The church building continues to be owned by the Diocese for anticipated future use at another new parish site. We had to start paying rent for the church building in July 2006. The City of Surprise has given us a few extensions on the original "conditional use permit." We conducted our Third Capital Campaign in February 2006, Building Our Church of Tomorrow ...Today. We are very grateful for our neighboring parish in Sun City West, Our Lady of Lourdes Parish/Prince of Peace for joining us in our efforts to raise enough money to be able to start construction in fall 2006. Two other Sun City have also been supporting our campaign, St. Clement of Rome Church and Ss. Joachim and Anne Church. Our campaign goal is to reach every parishioner household. If you are not registered in the parish but wish to be called, please contact our parish office as soon as you can. We are very grateful for the many sacrificial gifts we have received. We conducted our Fourth Capital Campaign in January 2008 to catch up with all the newcomers to the parish. If you have not been contacted, please let us know. It's up to you! Financial support, is critical to the success of this project and to all the ministries at St. Clare Parish. We need to pay for monthly maintenance, utilities and mortgage. The diocese required us to have 60% cash in hand for the project budget before it gave us approval. (This reflects a change that occurred Nov. 2006. Prior to this, new parishes like our own had to have 80% cash in hand before approval by the bishop. Older parishes with permanent buildings have different funding requirements.) This change put us in a better position which allowed us to go back to the drawing board and plan a better phase 1 project. This revised Phase 1 plan allowed us to build the parking lot expansion and to begin using the church. Completion of some interior elements such as stained glass windows, permanent altar, ambo, tabernacle, baptistery, and shrines will occur in future years.
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Planning Process |
A survey was sent to all registered parishioners at the end of October 2003. The office received 349 completed surveys. A report on the results was given to the parish in November. Parish Forum meetings were held on November 14, 15 and 16, 2003. Approximately 310 people participated and saw the architects' video presentation and attended the question and answer sessions. The vast majority favored the first construction phase to include the new church and not the multi-purpose building. Preliminary Plans were drawn in February 2004 for the new church floor plan and a model has been made. These were presented to the Diocesan Office of Worship and the Diocesan Office of Building and Properties. They made their recommendations to our new Bishop Thomas Olmsted for his approval or recommendations for modifications. These led to some refinements and changes in the master plan in July 2004. A Parish Forum on November 12, 2004 included a video presentation and scale wood model by the architects as well as discussions with parishioners. Our plans stood still for many months as we struggled with fund raising. In July 2005, an architect lead us through a planning process that involved the majority of the parish community by getting their input and educating them on the planning process. This generated a great deal of enthusiasm and kick-started our project. Many hundreds of parishioners over several weeks gave their feedback based on sketches and photos and plans presented. We thus determined that the parishioners preferred a more traditional design instead of the very modern buildings designed by a previous architect. We presented our new southwest styled plan to the parish in December which received enthusiastic support, then we presented the plans to the Diocese Building Commission, also in December 2005. They raised questions, gave suggestions and sent us back to the drawing boards for refinements. That process continued over several months. We held our Blessing and Groundbreaking in August 2006 with Bishop Olmsted. Actual ground work began the day after Easter 2007. The first work involved removing a portion of our parking lot, grading the entire site, forming the building pad for the church, building open water retention basins and paving additional parking. Construction work on the new church began January 2008 and was completed in time for us to start using the new church on Christmas Eve 2008.
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DESIGN |
The design has developed through the years of this project as costs were weighed against desires. We worked with several architects and with the construction team to arrive at our 2008 design |
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