Building project took 10 months to complete
The B.C. Catholic
MAPLE RIDGE
From the sprinkling of holy water at the site to the ribbon-cutting, it was one of the fastest building projects in the archdiocese.
St. Luke’s Parish, Maple Ridge, completed its new family centre in February. Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, officially blessed the building April 2.
“I must say this must’ve been one of the quickest building projects I can recall in the archdiocese!” exclaimed the archbishop before cutting the ribbon. “We first blessed the grounds in late June, and barely 10 months later, to have a building completed and ready for occupancy is something extraordinary.”
Despite the quick building process, the planning stage lasted more than 10 years. For last few years the parish’s Project Advance funds had been going to the new centre.
“I’m happy that the building is completed already,” Father Mario Marin, St. Luke’s pastor, said. Father Marin became the parish priest in July 2014, when the planning stage was well underway. “I just picked up the project from Father (Amador) Abundo, and we went from there.”
The project was lacking some funding at the time, but the St. Luke’s parishioners and the building committee pulled through, said Father Marin.
“Originally the plan was to build a new church,” said Lorraine Joseph, a member of the parish advisory council. “About five or six years ago we switched gears and decided we needed a family centre more than a church.”
“When the old church became too small for the parish, St. Luke’s made the gym our current church and turned the old church into our hall,” she said.
That hall soon proved to be much too small for the needs of the growing parish, so the committee decided on a new building. “The purpose of the new building is as a family centre for gatherings. We had outgrown the old hall we had and were in need of new facilities,” said Joseph.
The old hall was torn down, and the new parish centre was built there. “The parish office will move into the new building as well as our adoration chapel,” Joseph noted. “We might also have one or two of our PREP classes in the new building.”
“I know that constructing a building is a sometimes arduous task, but it’s also an activity that brings people together,” Archbishop Miller said. “Our goal is not just to build a building; the building is there to serve the purpose of building us up in Christ and in the Spirit.”
“If the building doesn’t foster our faith, our growth in our relationship with the Lord, our love for one another, then, as Scripture says, we will have built in vain.” But if it does the opposite and helps foster faith, then “it will accomplish what God desires of you,” he said.
