PARISH PASTORAL CENTRE UPDATE

On last Friday, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, Bishop Crean formally broke the ground for our new parish pastoral centre. This is the culmination of four years of hard work by a sub-committee of the pastoral council which has brought the project to this stage. Professional advice was received at all stages, and all necessary planning and other regulations have been complied with.

The project consists of the conversion of the presbytery adjacent to the church, plus the addition of an extension to the building. When completed, the building will give us four rooms suitable for use for meetings or as teaching spaces, as well as an expanded office, reception, and archive spaces.

The entire project will cost around 1.2 million euro, and will be financed as follows:

  • The parish has some money on reserve which was built up over the years and can be used for this project.
  • The parish has some property which can be sold. A site in Broomfield which was donated to the parish some years ago has been sold, and the present parish office will be on the market as soon as the new one is ready.
  • The above will give us over half of the amount we need. The parish has secured a loan from a social funding organization called Clann Credo for the balance. We are in advanced negotiations concerning the rental of some parish property which will go towards the repayments for this loan.

With all of these taken together, this building project should not place a heavy burden on parish finances. I thank all of those involved in the project so far for their time and hard work to bring it to this stage and ask your prayers for the success of the project, which I am sure will prove to be a great asset to our parish community into the future.