BUILDING A NEW CHURCH (BANC) FOR ST. PETER’S ROMAN CATHOLIC PARISH

Location:    Parcel “B” and “C” Plan 42897 Sec 23-11-2 at Inkster Boulevard and Brookside.

In the recent letter of Archbishop James Weisgerber, D.D. on the “House of Prayer of the Archdiocese”, he wrote,

“Our church buildings are important to us. They do not only provide us with our spiritual homes, but they are important reflections to the broader community of our faith life and often important community landmarks.”

By God’s grace and guidance, we believe that now is the time to build a new church for St. Peter’s parish. This has been planned years ago and we thank God for the people who had laid the foundation of this dream. By reasons of the growth of catholic population in the parish and the consequent needs and problems that arise, we strongly believe that now is the proper time to make the dream a reality. We believe that this is not a mere human dream, but it is God’s design.

Indeed the church as a house of prayer, temple of god manifest the faith of the people, and because God has given us the best of himself by sending us his only begotten son, we must therefore to God the best of our best.

The idea of building a bigger church for St. Peter’s parish has been existent for sometime now, thanks to the increase of parish memberships as new immigrants are coming in every year.   But it is only in the recent past that the momentum has picked up due primarily to the leadership of Msgr. Samson Jr. and the parish community who felt that the time is right for a bigger and functional church.

The following observations are the rationale why we build a new church:

• The church is overcrowded which compromise the solemnity of the liturgy and threatens people’s health and safety.
• There is a need for bigger worship area, baptismal place, and functional and real classrooms for catechism classes.
• There is a need for seminar rooms, and offices for the different committees.
• There is a need for more parking spaces.

In view of this, the parish commissioned Friesen Tokar Architects on July of 2009 to undertake an analysis to identify and develop long term options and strategies. The following are their findings:

1.    The existing structure would not support the imposed loads of a second storey development. To expand vertically would require extensive structural modification.

2.    The worship space has not been designed to accommodate expansion and therefore it would be necessary to completely demolish the space and construct new, larger volume in its place.

3.    Partial demolition of the parish hall and classroom wings will be required to provide circulation space for a larger worship space.

4.    Altogether it would be necessary to demolish 50 percent or more of the existing building before new construction could begin.

Based on the findings, the building committee concluded that it is much cheaper and more practical to build a new church rather than expand or renovate the existing one.

On the 13th of April 2010 the proposal of building a new church for St. peter’s parish was presented to the faithful and the plan was strongly supported by the parishioners. And on April 15th , 2010 Msgr. Samson, in the name of the parish, sent a letter to his Grace, Most Reverend Archibishop James Weisgerber, D.D., asking for his approval to go ahead with the next phase of the mission.