The parish of Sacred Heart Church in Elk Rapids is promoting a capital campaign to build a new church building. The plan for this, however, is not without controversy and concern from faithful in the Diocese. An explanation of the capital campaign and pictures of the proposed church building can be found on the parish website. The cost of this new church building is $4.5 million. Over $2 million as been donated thus far. The parish is serviced by priests from Christ the King parish. On any given weekend, there is one Saturday evening Mass and one Sunday Mass except in the summer, when an additional Sunday Mass is offered.
The building plans reveal a church building that actually looks like a church (unlike, for example, St. Ann Catholic Church which could be mistaken for a state of Michigan rest stop). The inside sketches, however, are concerning but may be incomplete. On the website, the current sketches of the inside of the church look like the inside of a space station. Nothing on the website reveals any specifics as to how the inside will look. For instance, what type of Stations of the Cross will be utilized? Will there be a pipe organ? What type of statues will be part of this new church building? A faithful attempted to obtain information from Fr. Jarvis. Two messages left at the parish were not returned.
Reasons for the new parish building include the following:
Lack of restrooms in the current church building.
The presence of steps up to the choir loft are not user friendly.
The sound system is bad.
Lack of an elevator in the current church building – Although a ramp exists, it is described by a parishioner on the parish website as not convenient.
Lack of a resident priest/The desire to have a larger sanctuary for summer Masses – Without a resident priest, perhaps a larger sanctuary would allow for fewer Masses with more people able to attend.
According to the parish website: “We have concluded that remodeling may be somewhat less expensive but will still not achieve our
vision of a larger, more accommodating sacred space connected to our social hall.”
Reasons against the building of a new church are as follows:
Lack of a resident priest – This parish suffers from a priest shortage like numerous parishes in the Diocese, namely, they are serviced by a priest (or priests) who cover more than one parish. Why build a bigger church building when you can’t even have a permanently stationed priest to oversee the property?
Lack of a significant parish size – Although the parish increases its Mass schedule in the summer, for most of the year, there is only one Saturday evening Mass and one Sunday Mass for the weekend Mass schedule. Is this parish at risk for closure and being absorbed by a larger parish? What would happen to the building if the bishop of the Diocese deems the parish no longer viable and in need of closure?
Cost – it would be much cheaper to restore/renovate the current church building to meet the needs of parishioners who desire a bathroom/elevator. Is the tearing down of the current Sacred Heart Church the best use of money? Would it not be better to honor the history and sacrifice (see below) of the founders and predecessors of this parish by restoring it to its prior (pre-wreckovation) beauty at much lower cost?
Respect for our predecessors – it is not uncommon to want to build new instead of restore and augment what has been built by those who have come before us and donated countless dollars and time to build what is already there. Throughout many parishes, the sacrifice of those who have come before us has been trampled on by renovators (also called wreckovators) who threw out beautiful statuary, Communion rails, pipe organs, Stations of the Cross, and stained glass windows, just to name a few, in the guise of the “spirit of Vatican II”. Some have even gone further, simply tearing down the church building to construct an ugly monstrosity in its place. One only needs to see a variety of Catholic churches in the Diocese of Gaylord to understand the extent of this tragedy (once again, St. Ann in Cadillac is a sad example). However, it is clear (by the sketches on the parish website of Sacred Hear Church in Elk Rapids) that this is not the intent, at least on the outside, of the proposed new church building. But will it be honored once the project gets underway?
Gaylord Diocesan Watch will continue to monitor this as it unfolds. We look forward to hearing the opinions, both for or against, this building proposal from our readers. Please feel free to send your feedback to: info@gaylordfaithfulnews.org .