i. Report Detailing the Requirements and Recommendations for a New Church and Associated Facilities (addressed parish concerns)
ii. Scope of Work for Architectural Services for the new St. Thomas the Apostle Church and Associated facilities (final document to architect)
iii. Canadian Standard form of Contract for Architectural Services (lays out the architects services, client responsibilities & other terms of the contract)
iv. Prayerfully consider how to approach the parish community and how to keep the community updated so that they continue to support this project. 130 responses from 1,000 surveys are not enough to consider the parish “on board”.

1) Sanctuary
2) Narthex (gathering area)
3) Storage Space
4) Office Space
5) Meeting Rooms
6) Financial Plan

1) Does the desired change benefit the target group (users)?
2) Is it user friendly?
3) Does it restrict some users?
4) Is it flexible to future modifications?
5) Is it cost effective?
6) Does it fix the “whole” plan?
7) Does it create added value?

1) Mailings
Decided that regular mailers to all registered parishioners were necessary to ensure that those who do not come to mass regularly are kept informed and invited to provide feedback. It is deemed worth the $600 investment in postage to maintain an open and inviting communication to all those with an interest in the parish. Some of this cost could be offset by having these communication pieces labeled by last name and placed at the main entrance of the church for pick up over a weekend. Those not picked up would be mailed.
2) Web site for summary of committee minutes and copies of mailers
3) Reports from the pulpit
4) Dedicated bulletin board

1) Weekend of Sept 16/17 - Fr. Bernie to address modernization and desire for all parishioners to become engaged in the process.
2) Saturday, Sept 23rd 10:00 a.m. - Committee to meet at Ralph Tersigni’s home,17 Walnut Drive, to draft a draft a communication to parish. Contents would include:

- History of parish
- What we’ve done to date
- 6 silos, and for each, history of why we have this type of structure, the limitations of the current situation and why we need to change
- Invite people for core committee and as sub committee
- Invitation to an open house
- Make another appeal for a chairperson and people to sit on the core committee or offer their talents for a special interest in a sub committee.

• Have parishioners pick up at main entrance after masses weekend of October 15th and 22nd. Any not picked up are mailed Monday Oct 23rd.
• Post on the parish web site with our phone numbers removed

• Need people with expertise in areas needed for this project
• Current committee members should approach those you feel would be helpful
• Deadline date to join committee – Nov. 15th after the open house
• Suggested that the committee be kept down to a workable size and perhaps Parish Council could vote on those who put their name forward

• When: Sunday November 12th, noon until 2:00 p.m.
• Objective
  o Focus on deficiencies of our current facility
  o Get feedback from those attending as to their ideas for improvement
  o to answer questions and illustrate why we need to make changes by pointing out the current limitations and illustrating through pictures of what we’ve seen at other parishes what the possibilities could be.
• Open House Self Guided Tour Brochure
  o Vicki has started the brochure and wants all of us to add our comments regarding the limitations of our various spaces by Sunday October 22nd so that it can be drafted and sent back to all committee members before the next meeting.
  o Comments need to be worded in a positive way
  o Therese to send all the power point presentation from last parish town hall meeting which can be used as a resource for this brochure.
• Logistics: To be discussed at next meeting
• Web site, Bulletin and Pulpit Announcements: Sunday Nov.5th and Saturday, Nov. 11th
• Announce Open House as well as the cut off date for putting your name forward to join the Spiritual Architecture Committee Nov 12th

• Rodney - resend his email for Criteria for Sanctuary and Narthex to all
• All - review Rodney’s email as well as the St. Thomas the Apostle document “Report Detailing the Requirements & Recommendations for a New Church and Associated Facilities”.
• All – By Sunday, Oct. 22nd, send your comments for criteria to Catherine for summary for next meeting. Template each of the 5 areas (Narthex i.e. greeting or gathering area, sanctuary, office space, meeting rooms, storage space) and make comments for each area.
• Catherine will compile and send back to all of us to review for the next meeting.

• Nov. 8th 7:15 p.m. – Conference Room
• Open House logistics and the brochure
• Criteria for each of the 5 areas
  

1. The mission of the spiritual architecture committee
2. The intent of the tour
3. Encourage feedback during and after the tour and how that feedback can be accomplished
4. Ask people to take the time to view the PowerPoint presentation that will be running that shows some of the churches we have visited to get a feel for what other parishes have done to modernize their space.
5. Direct people to join the volunteer guides in 4 areas of the church. Each group will stay with the same guides for the whole tour.

1. Catherine Feren & Therese Wright: Emma street entrance. This includes the crying room, washrooms, religious articles room, foyer, storage, vesting area, choir loft and outside steps
2. Ralph Tersigni & Sean Farrelly: Library/reconciliation room, confessionals
3. Marie Gazzola & Fr. Bernie: Sanctuary, storage behind the sanctuary and sacristy
4. Ralph Gorgi and Rodney Bell: Office space, basement and Community room.

• Therese to obtain a LCD projector and laptop to show the PowerPoint presentation.
• This equipment plus a screen will need to be set up prior to Rodney’s introduction at the beginning of the tour.

• Rodney offered to obtain the prayer used by St. Anthony Daniel parish
• Fr. Bernie and Catherine Feren offered to design the prayer

1. Saturday, November 19th at 11:15 a.m. at church to run through the church tour
2. Thursday, November 14th at 7:30 p.m. – Discuss the document “Criteria for Modernizing the Church Buildings” forwarded to all by Catherine Feren. We are to be very specific in this document because this is what we will forward to the architects.
   

• Held a “dry run” of the church tour that is to take place on November 19th noon to 1:00 p.m.
• Discussed the possibility of having a second tour to give more parishioners that do not attend 11:00 mass an opportunity to participate. Decided that there was not enough time to do a tour after 9:00 mass however Sean would make an announcement at the 5:00 p.m. mass tonight to see if there would be interest in a tour for next Saturday Nov. 25th after 5:00 p.m. mass.
• Also decided to have the church tour brochure copied onto coloured paper and inserted into next week’s bulletin. Therese to adjust the wording on the brochure cover accordingly.
• Fr. Bernie to announce 9:00 a.m. mass this weekend that we would be running a tour next Saturday and also have this additional tour advertised in the bulletin for the weekend of Nov.25/26th
• Therese to provide the web site coordinators with the past meetings’ minutes and the church tour brochure in order that this information is made available to parishioners.

• Next meeting, Thursday, November 14th at 7:30 p.m. – Discuss the document “Criteria for Modernizing the Church Buildings” forwarded to all by Catherine Feren. We are to be very specific in this document because this is what we will forward to the architects.

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  Spiritual Architecture Committee Meeting # 7
  Dec. 14, 2006

• Sunday after 11:00 mass aprox. 70 people.
  Tuesday after 9:00 mass 22 people.
  Thursday after 9:00 mass 2 people.
  The tour was a great opportunity to show parishioners the deficiencies of the current space and made people think about how we can make improve this space to make the liturgy more meaningful. Almost all comments from people on the tour were supportive.
• Therese will record all comments resulting from the tour and church tour brochures returned.
• Ralph sketched out an idea of staged changes which was an idea brought forth as a result of the tour.
• Another question asked on the tour was, “How many people come to mass?” The October and November counts were:
  5:00 p.m. mass 215 - 220
  9:00 a.m. mass 301 – 303
  11:00 a.m. mass 312 – 317
  for a total weekend average of 835 - 933
• Presently our church seats 600. So if we never fill the space, it was suggested that we remove some of the pews and use this space for something else.

• Create a warm space.
• Bring altar closer to the people and reduce the pews from 23 down to around half of the current capacity. At least 400 seats.
• Position altar so it is visible to all.
• Ensure presider is visible to all.
• Wheel chair accessibility to the altar (for those in wheel chairs who would like to be Eucharistic ministers).
• Incorporate wheel chair seating close to the altar.
• Seating around the altar and should not extend behind the altar (pews vs. chairs?).
• Tabernacle & lectern in a prominent place, visible to all.
• Baptismal font in the transition area of Narthex and Nave.
• An area for choir beside, not in, the sanctuary area. Large enough to accommodate 40 people, a piano, an organ and other instruments.
• Choir director should have eye contact with celebrant when seated at the piano or organ.
• Incorporate existing cross in new design.
• At least 1 soundproof reconciliation room allowing confession face to face or via a partition ~ 80 sq. ft. Light showing “occupied”.
• Vesting area for presider and altar servers situated close to the point where entrance procession begins.
• Working sacristy situated closer to the altar. This room to house everything from flower pots, altar décor and linens to sacred vessels. Should be situated close to the altar.
• Preserve the current religious art, donor wall, the crucifix and stations of the cross and statuary.
• Weekday chapel – used as overflow for large gatherings as well as for smaller weekday masses.
• Weekday chapel should emphasize our Lady of the Rosary in its decor.
• No need for side altars.
• Retain the marble from the current altars for other purposes in the new design.
• Improved lighting that can be modulated. Maintain as much natural light as possible.

• Entrance handicap accessible.
• A gathering area that will accommodate 100-300 people with a single entrance to the parking lot.
• Cloak room with doors.
• Handicap accessible washrooms.
• Storage for card tables and chairs ~200 sq.ft.
• Closet for shovels, salt and janitor's needs.
• Kitchen- full function.
• Area will need information boards.

• 1 parlour for couples / families to meet with the pastor or other staff.
• General office waiting area.
• General office area for 2 people to work in it – receptionist and administrative assistant.
• With space for files that is fire proof as well as for office equipment such as fax machine and photocopier.

• Thursday, January 4th, 7:30 p.m.
• Rodney to invite Steve Gazzola to the next meeting for his input on how the final architect outline should look and what specifically it should include.
• Prayer for next meeting – same.
• Agenda:
  • Fr. Bernie to present parish prayers for next meeting.
  • Continue outline for architect, discussing meeting rooms, storage space and other.
  • Prioritize items
    Begin discussions on the Structure of Committee as per Anthony Daniel (Rodney to resend the email re: St. Anthony Daniel).

a. Minimum 20’ x 25’ with one child washroom and storage
For the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd level 1 and future levels 2 and 3. Foresee using this room 4-5 times per week in 5 years as the program grows Program in future will run day time and evenings. The children gather outside the atrium before the session begins so a gathering area should be away from people traffic and distractions. The gathering area should be large enough to seat 8 children and 2 adults on child size chairs in a semi circle and would also be the place to hang up their coats and store boots.
Sunday School can also make use of this room. This room would require a child height sink with 4’ of counter space and cupboards above and below.
Should be a dedicated space and used as a meeting room for other purposes only as a last resort. Prefer windows to the outside to bring in natural light.

b. 2nd and 3rd meeting rooms to accommodate 40 people each. Architect to determine whether the rooms can be sound proofed with a divider so that it can be made into one large room when required, or whether it would be more economical and practical to make them two separate rooms.
Requires access to an adult washroom on one end and to the children’s washroom on the other end, as it would be used by Children’s Liturgy on Sunday. Both rooms require telephone and cable outlets, audio visual equipment and storage space.

o For chairs and tables where required
o Benevolent fund
o Near entrances for shovels and salt
o For music equipment
o Art and environment
o For each committee e.g. CWL, Seniors,
o Custodial closets with slop sinks

1. Fr. Bernie – Will arrange that a new community prayer replace the Diocesan 50th anniversary prayer in the front of the hymnals. This same prayer will be given to all ministry leaders to use at their meetings. For those leaders who do not attend the parish council meeting, this prayer will be left in a place to pick up. Also a prayer of intercession will begin at all mass.
2. Rodney and Wayne to articulate the current document into a functional program that we give to the architect for a conceptual drawing. This draft functional program will spell out the specific purpose of each room and provide more detail about the project. They will use the St. Thomas the Apostle document as a guideline.
3. If any of us are committee leaders, we can start sending Rodney and Wayne our more detailed criteria for our own ministry needs so that these can be included in the draft functional program.
4. Before the next parish council meeting, Marie Gazzola to provide Rodney with a checklist of needs that ministry leaders can use to articulate their specific requirements.
5. Marie also to provide Rodney with a list of ministries and the contact persons for each. Marie to contact those ministry leaders who do not attend the parish council meeting with an explanation of the checklist.
6. At the next parish council meeting, Rodney and Wayne will update parish council on what we have accomplished to date as well as ask all of the ministry leaders to take home the check list of needs developed by Marie that will help our committee to understand the specific ministries’ needs
7. All of us – email Rodney to let him know our own area of interest on one of the following sub committees:
   • Communications Team – all communications to the parish go through this committee to ensure a consistent message.
   • Needs assessment team – Defines the needs of the parish. This is what we are currently doing and will continue to articulate as feedback comes from the parish ministries
   • Design Team- contacts and interviews architects and develops the plan
   • Building Team-writes the specifications, lets the contracts and will supervise construction.
   • Finance Team- decides how much money is required and how it will be spent.
   • Fund Raising Team-in conjunction with a professional fund raiser, plan and execute the fund raising campaign
   • Prayer Team – write prayers and organize prayer meetings, prayer chains etc. At St. Anthony Daniel parish, this group organized an evening in the church with a living rosary.

• We are still waiting to hear from some of the other members of the Spiritual Architecture Committee as to what sub committee they are interested in joining. Rodney Bell to follow up with them.
• The following people have asked that their names to stand for the sub-committees listed below.
  • The chairs of these sub-committees will make up the “Spiritual Architecture Steering Committee”
  • 1. Prayer – Rodney Bell, Mary Lynn Woods, Therese Wright
    Purpose - To ensure the parish ministries, sub-committees and the parish pray for a successful outcome of this project and avoid any damaging conflict in our community. Communications – Catherine Feren, Ron Langel.
    Purpose – All communications to the parish on this project should go through this committee to ensure a consistent message and that all parishioners are aware of what is going on. It was suggested that someone from the parish communications committee be invited to join this group.
  • 2. Needs Assessment – Marie Gazzola
    Purpose – to consult with parish groups who could be affected by, or would use the new facilities. A letter has been put together to give to all parish ministry chairpersons. Their feedback is required by Feb. 28th to Wayne Young
  • 3. Design Specifications – Wayne Young, McGee McGuire, Ralph Tersigni, Ralph Gorgi
    Purpose – Draw up the specifications of what the established goals are based on input from all sub-committee members. This committee will not set goals. Members of all sub-committees will have a chance to review and suggest alterations to the specifications document.
  • 4. Fund Raising – Martin Gray, Vicki Veri, Marie Gazzola.
    Purpose – Look at the requirements for fund raising. How have other parishes done it? What is effective? What are the costs? Do we need outside help? Suggested this group contact other parishes to get ideas on how to effectively go about this task.
  • 5. Architect selection – Bill Dubuc, Rodney Bell, Fr. Bernie, Martin Gray, Therese Wright
    Purpose – Look at how we should select an architect. Which company has experience? Who has used them before? How conversant are they with our needs? What would be the cost of getting three (more or less) design concepts?

i. Recruit members from the parish for your sub committee
ii. Meet once before the next Spiritual Architecture Steering Committee meeting on
March 15th.
iii. Discuss the purpose of your group as described above
iv. Put together a course of action
v. Choose a chairperson. This person will also sit on the Spiritual Architecture Steering Committee and report to the steering committee on the activities and recommendations of your group.

• Any more inputs to the design specifications are to be sent to Wayne Young by Feb. 28th. Some have been returned to Anne MacLean.
• It was noted that some parish ministries were missing from the specifications document. Marie Gazzola to send Wayne Young a complete list of ministries.
• Parish ministry leaders need to summarize the inputs from their members rather than have each member submit their own ideas.
• Suggested that we include the “brainstorming” design ideas of parishioners as a separate section.
• Suggested that we list the steering committee and sub committee members, the chairpersons and their contact information.
• Remove section 6 “Adding Air Conditioning to the Church” and give this project to the parish building committee to look at when we get closer to a plan to present to the parish in September. It was felt that the architect would not need this information as we already have the heating ductwork in place to accommodate air conditioning if we chose to install it.

1. Redesign the worship space to bring the presider closer to the people
2. Narthex or gathering space
3. Meeting space for children/youth and other ministries
4. More office space
5. Storage space

1. A Pulpit discussion from Fr. Bernie at this time would be most effective.

2. Written communication developed by Joe Waters and Wayne Young.

o A graphic of the process and time lines (an enlarged version could be displayed in the foyers of the church)

o Will reference the past processes in which parishioners gave input.
Communicate that we selected The Walter Fedy Partnership. This is a larger organization that provides both architectural and engineering services and is located in Kitchener. Roger Farwell is the architect who spoke with us. He is a practicing Catholic and very familiar with the diocesan requirements and Catholic church design. He is currently involved with renovations at St. Anthony Daniel church in Kitchener, where the design was revamped several times until it fit the budget. He has been awarded the work; however the contract is yet to be negotiated.

o Parallel to the design process will be the Financial Feasibility study lead by Joe Waters. (It is important and reassuring to state Joe’s qualifications)

o Describe briefly how the Financial Feasibility study will be done.

o When architecture plans are ready, the fund raising plan will be ready.
o A Town hall meeting should be scheduled for early fall to show architect’s drawings as well as the results of the financial feasibility study and next steps. This will be another opportunity for parishioners to give their input. The architect should be on hand for this meeting.

o A second town hall meeting will be scheduled for late fall/early winter to show final plans and costs.

o Will attempt to keep this communication succinct yet general, because details are not yet available.

• It was suggested by the steering committee that Roger Farwell bring along the person who is actually supervising this job, to the next meeting of the Architecture sub committee.
• It was also suggested that since the fees have not yet been negotiated, and we are a religious/charitable organization, would they give us a break on their fees.
• A feedback form (that includes a space for the parishioner’s name & ph #) should be made available at the time of this communication on both the parish website as well as a hard copy from perhaps the area where the graphic time line is displayed in the foyer.

•The community presentations were excellent.
•200 people turned up for the 3 Community meetings out of 850 who attend weekly masses. Some concern that not many younger families participated in the community meetings but also an understanding of their time constraints.
•Maybe the 200 people who attended the community meetings were not such a bad representation after all if we consider that we receive 400 weekly envelops. Also, looking at the mass attendance of 800 per weekend minus the children gives an idea of total potential donors. With these two points in mind, then the total number of families represented at the community meetings is actually more acceptable than first thought.
•People are concerned about the total $5 - $7 million estimated cost of the architect’s rendering.
• Nothing has gone out to tender so the cost is on the high side. This is only the architect’s cost estimate.
Preliminary estimates are that we could raise about $2,000,000 from the 400 parishioners currently using envelopes. This is based based on a 5 year commitment.
• 20% of the people give 80% of the money, so the burden would be on a few. However, when we say that we are only meeting the ongoing needs of the parish from our weekly collections, that is to be expected. The parish is not a profit oriented business and we should expect to break even. It’s a good thing that we just meet our expenses every year. Why would we be generating more than we need from our weekly donations? People will not contribute if we don’t have an identified building project.
Recent fund raising for smaller scale projects is encouraging. Was this because we had a focused goal and financial target? For example, the $20,000 campaign for the piano raised $22,000. The new priest vestments were all paid for by private donations. The recent campaign to pay for the new sacred vessels is seeing most of them being paid. When an appeal was made to buy CBW III for the pews, the hymnals were paid for right away.
If the person approached in the parish survey does not support the entire plan, then we should ask, “What part of the plan are you most willing to support?”
• Go ahead with the 75 family survey to see how much we can generate and what people are willing to donate for this project over and above their weekly donations. We are not just presenting a building plan to build for what we need today but for what we think we will need as we move forward into the future.
• The parish survey would also uncover what needs there are in the parish.
There is a sense that we also need to look at the types and numbers of programs we are currently offering as well as invest in staff to carry this parish into the future.
The parish survey of 75 families needs to answer the question, “What does this parish really need?” Are we currently trying to do too much but not really meeting the needs of the parish?
Change is not readily acceptable to older people. We must be very sensitive to that because they are the bulk of our attending parishioners.
The parish needs more education on what we want to do as a community and what are our needs. For example, some say we need a parish nurse. People don’t understand why our church would offer such a program because the public community already offers this. Perhaps we do need this, but we need more education/communication on how that (or other programs/staff) can be a benefit to our community.
Why not expand the rectory by putting meeting rooms above the garage? (this was proposed to the architect, but we failed to mention in our community presentations that the architect thought it would not be the most viable plan)
There are real concerns about the demographics in the diocese. Is Holy Rosary parish going to be here down the road? Are the Jesuits going to be here? Where is the deanery going to be in 5 years?
The present bishop says he won’t close any parishes. Twinning of parishes is possible. There is room for us to propose a vision for the future.
We also need to look at what programs this parish needs and use a portion of the monies raised to finance more paid positions for lay people. (paid positions could be term contract positions and not necessarily full time, full benefit positions) We are all getting older and less energetic and many of us put in a lot of volunteer hours now. It will be difficult to run a parish in the future based on volunteers who come and go. As we look to the future with fewer priests and possible twinning of parishes we will need lay people to carry on the work of the pastor and associates we have now if we want to continue to be a vibrant, caring community of faith.
We need to do a better job communicating to the people about our plan. There is currently a real lack of clarity.
Also need to communicate to other stakeholders like the families attending our high schools and elementary schools and the business community (both catholic and non-catholic).
There is a need to clarify that the architect’s diagram does not show detail. It is simply a concept drawing that encompasses all of the hopes and dreams that the parish expressed in the various workshops we’ve had over the years. This is the Cadillac design that encompasses all of that.
Suggestion that those who came together for the Hopes and Dreams workshop should gather again.
Frustration with the lack of storage space in the church. When the gifts were collected for the Tree of Hope there were a lot of volunteers to help sort them, but the group had no place to store them before delivering them. Suggested that those who have issues with space present their stories to the parish.
We need a more welcoming atmosphere in our parish; otherwise we won’t attract people or keep them.
We also need to hear from younger people, since the community meetings did not attract them.
There is also big potential for population growth in this end of Guelph. We are not promoting ourselves enough to people who move into the area.
A perception that there are 2 camps of opinion:
1) Only renovate the interior – older people generally
2) Meeting rooms and offices and outreach programs are most important – generally the younger people.
We need to continue with the whole project in all its aspects, even if it needs to be scaled down because if we only continue with some aspects of the project we may cause division in the parish between the two camps of opinion.
• The dream is so broad, so much and so costly that it is too much for people and they can’t see it. We have a lot more educating to do with our parishioners.
• Propose that we get a professional public relations/communications/marketing company to help us with this.
• The Architecture Committee spent a lot of time and money with the architect to come up with this rendering. We answered all the questions that people had. This is not the time to drop the ball. Yes it is a big picture. We need to go to the next step. Do a survey of the higher end parishioners who can come up with $250,000 or more. Until we know their support, how can we talk about scaling down? Put a marketing plan in place. Put the drawings in front of the people.
• Thank you for the tremendous amount of work well done by the Spiritual Architecture Committee.

•Don’t redo the plan.
•Why do we need more meeting space if we only have evening meetings? Why can’t we meet in the church nave?
•We need to do much more promotion to new arrivals in the city. There has been some discussion on programs for young mothers and their children. At present, the programs we offer don’t seem to be part of the main life of people in the community.
•Children’s programs should not be held in the basement but must be seen. It should be so obvious to people coming to the parish that we have children’s programs. This attracts young families.
•If the $5-$7 million plan is not doable, can we scale it back and still offer all 3 elements: 1) moving the altar closer, 2) a narthex (gathering area) and 3) a parish centre?
•Feedback from other parishes is that we must first go to the people with the ability to support with significant money ($250,000+) to really establish what we can raise. We must propose a concrete vision to them. The pastor and another finance support person must make these one on one visits.
•Establish a strong contribution base amount (from major donors and the 75 families) before going to the rest of the parish. After they can see that a big chunk is committed, the rest of the parishioners will be more willing to donate to something that is going to succeed.
•People going out to ask for financial support and who do the surveys need to be coached.
•Sell the full package as shown at the community meetings.
•We need a better marketing plan which is going to cost money.
•All questions asked by parishioners need to be viewed as input. Answer all these questions with a positive response.

a. Put together a professional marketing presentation
b. Fr. Bernie with help, will plan to make a personal appeal to potential high end contributors
c. Survey 75 families
d. Adjust the vision depending on the results of 2 and 3 above.

1. The design proposed (sketch#7 which was presented to the parish in Nov/Dec’07) was attempting to update a “pre-Vatican” structure. The cost to attain these adaptations approaches the cost to build an entirely new complex. Suggest we re-visit our goals with a view to a more modest set of objectives.

2. The parish recognize and work within the constraints of the current structure.

3. The parish develop a master plan for all components of the project and develop a staging plan based on priorities.

4. The current parish hall be considered as a possible resource to remedy parish needs.

1. Give the architect a firm project cost
2. Be much more concise in our instructions to the architect
3. Ask the architect what further drawings would cost and how that billing is phased so
that we can budget for it.
4. Spiritual Architecture Committee will meet Saturday April 19th at 1:30 p.m. in the sanctuary to take measurements and develop a more concise plan that takes into consideration the four recommendations from the Diocesan Building Committee.

a. Converting the parish hall to a two-story parish centre that would house office space and meeting rooms on a second floor with a parish reception area, updated washrooms, elevator and community hall on the main floor.

b. Looking at Church Design 2A which was one of the preliminary designs developed by the architect that works within the footprint of the current structure. Before meeting next Saturday, we would individually think about ways to incorporate the following features into the existing footprint of the current church, office space and community room:

I. Altar on the west end of the building, in the midst of the people with pews around 3 sides of the altar
II. Narthex area facing the east parking lot
III. Retain a space for coffee after mass, connected to but not part of the Narthex
IV. Area for a new baptismal font between the narthex and nave for adult and infant immersion
V. 1-2 reconciliation rooms
VI. Visible, main floor area for Children’s programs – 1-2 rooms. This would be shared space for the 3 children’s’ programs and also used as meeting space during the week for other ministries. (If need be, the atrium of the Good Shepherd could also be housed in the renovated hall, but the Sunday children’s programs really need to be connected closely to the Nave.
VII. Sacristy / vesting area
VIII. Space for piano, organ and choir to lead
IX. Storage for choir materials
X. Storage for church décor
XI. Storage for janitorial needs
XII. Washroom facilities for disabled, men, women
XIII. Cloak room
XIV. Think about how to adapt the current crucifix in some way to into the new sanctuary