Dear Parishioners: I want to clarify a few things about the Stained Glass Preservation Project. Insurance does not cover the cost to remove and store or re-install windows in another location. Therefore, the money collected from this project will be used for this purpose. We hope to reuse at least 4 or 5 of the smaller window scenes at the St. Gertrude cemetery and at St. Michael campus. We can either sell the others or put more of them at the cemetery depending on how much money we collect. The very large Baptism of Christ scene can probably not be sold, so if we don't get enough money to install a large pavilion somewhere we will probably not reuse it or it will be removed and stored for a much later date.
Some people are rightfully concerned about the lack of progress on re-building the Religious Education Building at St. Michael. Now that the bankruptcy has been finalized, and we are selling the St. Gertrude property very soon, we will first pay off our debt to the Archdiocese from the two former parishes over the last few years and have money to hire an architect to begin that planning process. We will soon have a meeting with the insurance and finance people to learn how much money we will have for this project. We will keep you informed on the progress.
The hurricane, tornado, Covid, unscrupulous contractors, and Archdiocesan bankruptcy, have all caused the great loss of assets, income, and parishioners; and, have led to our merged new parish. Despite these difficulties and our new situation, we have continued to move forward and grow as a united community of Catholic Christians. Let us have faith, and hope for the future and work generously together in love to build up the Body of Christ.