By way of reminder, our Transition Team continues to meet every other week to prepare for the merger of our three parishes and please note that July 1st, 2020 is the date we are planning for this to happen. Once our work is done, it goes to the Archdiocese and Archbishop to be reviewed and then approved or modified before anything is official.

At our meetings in the month of January and February, we have been reviewing thoroughly the data of the three site studies that have been conducted by an independent firm, AKT Peerless and consulted with a member of the Archdiocese Properties Office. This study looked at the condition of all three Parishes, to give us an idea of the condition of our three parishes so that we can make an informed decision going forward.

After much prayer, thought and discussion, we, the Transition Committee, have come to the following decision. The St. John the Baptist Parish site, although it has a beautiful church, would be too small to host the merged parish as the space they have is just not adequate to hold the many ministries and activities that take place daily. The St. Albert the Great Parish site while adequate in size and having a beautiful church as well, is already home to the Wayne County Head Start program which generates an income of $11,800 per month and is leased to them until 2021. They have also expressed an interest in a long-term lease and the possibility of purchasing the entire site. The St. Sebastian Parish site is adequate in size and currently has no tenant nor has anyone approached us to buy the parish site if it were to come up for sale. It presently hosts the Faith Formation Program for the three parishes along with the St. Vincent DePaul for all our parishes. It is also home to the O’Kelley Council Knights of Columbus. With these facts in mind, the Transition Team has decided to recommend to the Archbishop that the St. Sebastian Parish site be the location for the new Parish on July 1st, 2020. If the Archbishop and Consulters’ concur with our findings, this new parish with a new name will be our new home for years to come. This also means that all three parishes will close on June 30th and the new parish yet to be named by the Archbishop will come into existence on July 1st, 2020.