The Book: The task of building a new worship space for a community is both overwhelming and sacred. It is a time of change that presents the opportunity for enrichment and catechesis. Using his experience of working with a steering committee to build a new church, Fr. James Healy in this volume takes a daunting task and makes it manageable. He provides engaging ideas for involving the parish comminity in decision making and for ensuring that the process of building a new church is a prayerful and sacred time. The result, as Healy notes, can bring surprising and frutiful rewards: "The paradox I experienced was that I had set out to have the parish build their church, and in following all these processes, the new church built the parish."
paperback - 6" x 9" - 152 pages
The Author: James E. Healy is a diocesan priest of Kansas City - St. Joseph, presently serving as pastor of St. Robert Bellarmine parish in Blue Springs, Missouri. From 1986 to 1995 he was pastor of St. Mark the Evangelist parish in Independence, Missouri, where a new church was built under his leadership.
