{"id":2833,"date":"2008-09-16T00:05:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-16T00:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/a-catholic-megachurch.html"},"modified":"2008-09-16T00:05:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-16T00:05:00","slug":"a-catholic-megachurch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/a-catholic-megachurch.html","title":{"rendered":"A Catholic megachurch?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>
That is exactly what this striking facility seems to represent. An article in Church Executive Magazine<\/a> outlines how the building came to be, from the merger of six parishes in Wisconsin. Could this be the shape of things to come? <\/p>\n

Take a look: <\/p>\n

Holy Family Catholic Community in Fond du Lac, WI, has the remarkable distinction of being a house of worship that was created by the merger of six other Catholic parishes. This merger was decided in 1998 and the parishes became one church in 2007. Bringing together several parishes brought on the need to include a large fellowship hall, worship space and offices. The 53,000-square-foot church is designed to accommodate 1,250 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe church\u2019s leadership desired an image of unity that would embrace the six parishes,\u201d says John Holz, project designer, Plunkett Raysich Architects. \u201cThe design is expressed architecturally in the wood and steel structure where six beams, representing the merged churches, span from the baptistery to the altar.\u201d The beams from front to back of the space are made out of steel columns that are inlaid with wood and then the wood is used to span the columns, which creates the effect of arches.<\/p>\n

The church faces the Niagara Escarpment, a 650-mile geological formation with enpoints in Wisconsin and New York. Local quarried stone from the escarpment (cliff formation) is used to form the base of the church and the bell tower.<\/p>\n

The stone is also used to form six octagonal pavilions that symbolize the former churches. Three of the rooms serve as a memorial to the churches of St. Joseph, St. Louis and St. Patrick filled with artifacts and artwork. The baptistery is the tallest of the octagonal spaces and is the entry into the church. These octagons link the colonnades of the church.<\/p>\n

The design team incorporated elements from the six churches. \u201cOne of the biggest challenges was creating a new church that all six congregations would embrace,\u201d Holz says. \u201cNot all of the parishes came to this process with open arms. In doing this new church we certainly had to acknowledge the sadness of the congregants that were not ready to let go of their worship homes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The design incorporates elements from the six churches to further emphasize that Holy Family is one church of many. \u201cWe reused stained glass and the pipe organ from the downtown St. Joseph parish,\u201d Holz says. \u201cThis is to let people know that the church is truly a blend of the parishes and honors their memory. This is not done in a kitschy museum-style; these elements were thoughtfully integrated into the design.\u201d<\/p>\n

The design material that stands out is the wood. \u201cWood is very important in this church. It is a humble workable material that is warm and tactile,\u201d says Holz. \u201cThe giant wood beams are welcoming and are a nice complement to the stone, metal and glass.\u201d The elements combine to form a functional and aesthetic volume.<\/p>\n

The lighting concept used in the church includes clerestory windows and a high gable glass. \u201cWe definitely wanted the light to enter from the top of the space. The light filters down and has an ethereal effect,\u201d Holz says.<\/p>\n

There is a colonnaded area between the church\u2019s courtyard and fellowship hall. This includes an east facing glass wall that opens to a view of a rolling hill. \u201cWe wanted to let the movement of the sun across the site inform part of the design,\u201d Holz says. \u201cThere is a distinct architectural vernacular; however, it is neither an old-fashioned or modern aesthetic.<\/p>\n

Because of the uniqueness of the of the church merger, the design team had to create a church that would not only be timeless, but also embrace the different parish communities and ethnic groups represented in Fond du Lac. According to Holz, there are about 45,000 residents in Fond du Lac, and about one-third of them are Catholic \u2014 a very high percentage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe church is a good neighbor to its residential community,\u201d Holz says. \u201cThe materials and familiar forms are respectful to the design aesthetic of the neighborhood.\u201d While the size of the church is a very big statement on the landscape, the landmark structure uses materials that suggest permanence. \u201cIt is truly a call to worship for the entire city of Fond Du Lac,\u201d Holz says.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Visit the link<\/a> for more pictures and information. <\/p>\n

And you can read more at the parish website.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That is exactly what this striking facility seems to represent. An article in Church Executive Magazine outlines how the building came to be, from the merger of six parishes in Wisconsin. Could this be the shape of things to come? Take a look: Holy Family Catholic Community in Fond du Lac, WI, has the remarkable…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-churches"],"yoast_head":"\nA Catholic megachurch? - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/09\/a-catholic-megachurch.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Catholic megachurch? - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"That is exactly what this striking facility seems to represent. 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Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}