A few weeks ago, 200 of our parishioners participated in the virtual parishwide workshops hosted by Jim Hundt, Liturgical Architect of the design team. As part of that process, participants provided their input through an online survey. Jim is now collating the results of that survey. Although the survey has been closed, you can still view Jim’s presentation by watching the video located in the box above. 

Click here to read the Needs Assessment Report prepared for our parish by Foresight Architects. 

Rebuilding a Church, Continuing a Mission -
Committee Report – July 21, 2020


The Rebuilding Committee has been meeting, via Zoom, every two weeks since June.  Its work to date has been focused on two areas.  

First, there have been several meetings with representatives of the companies that hold the insurance on the church.  The most recent of these meetings took place on Thursday, July 16.   As mentioned in our last report, the parish hired Trophy Point Construction Services and Consulting and LAN Associates to provide expert support for our claim, which was submitted in early June.  This estimate is our assessment of the cost of rebuilding the old church at today’s costs.  Separately, we have submitted the estimated costs of all church contents, business interruption expenses and professional fees.  Not surprisingly, the insurance companies have hired their own experts.  Resolving any differences is a critical part of the rebuilding process and will take some time.  We have established that the claim is a “total loss” and a base floor amount for the replacement cost of the basic building.  The insurance team of the Committee is working diligently to fairly maximize our claim.

At the same time, the Committee has been meeting, virtually, with Jim Hundt, our liturgical architect from Foresight Architects, as well as the project architects from LAN Associates.  All of the Committee’s discussions and architectural recommendations have been based on the “MBS Needs Assessment”, the document created from the responses of the on-line survey completed by our parishioners earlier this year.  Our plans also assume that we will receive a fair insurance recovery which, combined with capital funds received to date and some future fundraising, will be sufficient to establish an appropriate overall budget.

As outlined in our last report (June 20), the architects presented three preliminary site/layout designs to the committee, each of which included different ideas as to the location, layout and dimensions of the church (i.e., formal worship space), the daily chapel, and community gathering space.  The Committee provided feedback on the concepts provided and received a revised version of the design in July.    While that new floorplan moved the process forward in a decisive way, some of its elements are still being refined and undergoing additional revisions.

At this point, the following decisions have been made:

⦁ the new building will include a main worship space, daily chapel and community gathering space; as such, it will be significantly larger than the old church building; the formal worship space itself includes increased seating and the design provides for flexible overflow space to accommodate increased attendance on holy days and at special events.
⦁ the new structure will be built closer to the traffic circle to increase the church’s visibility within the community and to accommodate the increased size of the building without diminishing the existing parking area.
⦁ the new church will feature a circular seating design, as this was the point of greatest consensus from the parish surveys.
⦁ the style of the new building will be more traditional and conspicuously less “modern”, and instead feature an open, bright, and welcoming design.
⦁ the new chapel will feature parallel rows of seating on either side of a central aisle and will accommodate approximately 80 to 100 people.
⦁ The movement of the site and much larger size of the overall building made it impossible to incorporate the existing bell tower into the new design.  The bell tower is an iconic church image, something that is strongly associated with the history of the parish; therefore, the bells from the existing tower will remain an integral part of the design of the new building.

This past week, the Committee discussed preliminary elements of the exterior design for the new building. While there was an awareness of the need to consider the entire MBS campus as a whole (school, parish center, church), the Committee advised the architects against limiting the ‘look’ of the exterior façade to a simple re-creation of the other buildings (that is, basically a monolithic brick design).   Instead, the recommendation was that they take a more eclectic approach that utilizes various building materials (wood, brick, stone, glass etc.), in order to create a warm and welcoming aesthetic, both inside and out.

The Committee also reviewed some proposed concepts for a new baptismal font, a key element of the design of the new worship space.  The Needs Assessment Report indicated that the parishioners preferred to be more physically present to a baptism.  While the font will be near the entrance, it will be situated a little more among the people.  Like the previous font, the new one will be on a direct line to the altar, symbolically representing the “path to life.”  There will be some limitations on its size (though it will definitely be bigger than the previous font).  The font must also be able to accommodate the different rituals involved with the baptisms of both children and adults.  Given its structural prominence and the fact that this first Sacrament of Initiation is the foundation of the community of faith, the details of the font’s design require careful planning.  

There was also some preliminary discussion about other devotional elements in the Church (Stations of the Cross, potential shrines to the Blessed Mother and Holy Family), including the scope and style of an elevated crucifix, suspended centrally over the worship space.

Father John announced that the Marist Brothers had donated a statue of the Blessed Mother, which had previously been a centerpiece at Marist High School, in Bayonne.   He discussed the possibility of the statue being used for either a Marian shrine within the church or adorning the new daily chapel.

The Committee will continue its bi-weekly meetings and proceed with other elements of the building’s design throughout the summer.   In the end, however, final decisions will be dependent on two things.

The first is the resolution of the insurance claim.  Until the parish has a reliable and accurate statement of the amount that will be paid by the insurance company, it is very difficult to make final decisions about the design of the new building because there is no way to create a realistic budget for the project.  

Finally, it is paramount that the parish, as one community, embraces this new design with enthusiasm and excitement.  Insurance considerations aside, the architects envision having their proposed floorplan for the building (church, chapel, community center) ready for review by mid-October.    That presentation would also include 3-D renderings of both the interior and exterior of the new building.

Hopefully, such a presentation could also coincide with a definitive resolution of the insurance issues still under discussion.  Consequently, with everyone’s support, the parish can make its final design decisions.  At that point, the process of creating detailed construction drawings, and ultimately putting the project out to bid to contractors, can begin.

“Our committee has a great diversity of skills and expertise and has been working collaboratively to manage a complex process,” said Rebuilding Committee Chair Frank Bivona.  “I am confident that these efforts will result in a new church that all parishioners will cherish for decade to come.”

Father John Job, Pastor, agrees.  He states, ‘The Rebuilding Committee members have demonstrated consistently that they are co-responsible stewards for an historic project of this magnitude.”  Father John also adds, “All of us should remember with gratitude what we had.  We should also anticipate with great joy what is yet to be.  And through it all – past, present and future – the mission of our parish remains the same: to be witnesses of God’s love in our world.”  

The Committee will continue to apprise parishioners of the progress of its discussions as we move through the next 8-10 weeks of planning.  

Thank you for your faith, patience, and support.