The Holy Family Catholic Parish in Arnold may have a new church ready for Masses in just more than two years.
At a town hall meeting held May 18 at the parish center, Louis Chiodini, president of Chiodini Architects of St. Louis, told the crowd of about 150 people that a new church may be completed by June 2027, replacing the one on the Church Road campus in Arnold.
It would be built on the same site as the current Immaculate Conception Church which will be demolished. The Immaculate Conception Church was closed after it was damaged by the March 14 storm. Last year, Holy Family stopped holding masses in the St. David Church on the Tenbrook Road campus, 2334 Tenbrook Road, around the same time the church’s HVAC system stopped working, parish leaders said.
Chiodini, along with Holy Family Pastor Gerald Blessing; the Rev. Michael Lydon, the vicar for the Archdiocese Southern Vicariate; and Gregory Uphoff, Chiodini Architects director of design, discussed plans for the parish’s new church during the nearly 90-minute meeting. Church members also had the chance to talk about what features they want to be included in the new church.
Chiodini said his company, which designed St. John’s Catholic Church, 4614 Blue Springs Road, in Imperial, may complete its master plan for the new Holy Family Parish church by mid-to-late July. If the parish is simultaneously crafting a fundraising plan, the fundraising campaign for the new church could start in earnest by mid-October.
“We would be able to get into drawings by middle of next year, and then it would be one year from that,” he said. “I would say June 2027 is when I think we might (have the church built). That is a pretty aggressive schedule.”
Blessing said the parish will need $5 million to build a new 400-seat, 9,000-square-foot church.
“We believe a $5 million budget will allow us to have a noble church,” he said.
Blessing said the parish has about $235,000 in the new church fund, and he believes the parish will be able to meet its goal.
“Right now, when I look at our annual collections it is about $660,000,” he said. “That is what we have to work with. Hopefully, we can energize stewardship, and maybe this will help. We have (another) $2.5 million on hand, and maybe extra donations or special collection donations will get that other half. That is what I am looking at. I think it is doable.”
Blessing told those at the town hall meeting that the parish is exploring what to do with the Tenbrook Road campus and St. David Church, adding that the parish cannot afford to maintain two properties.
“There is a canonical process that we have to follow regarding consecrated churches,” he said. “It is not like I can just go out and arbitrarily get rid of a church on my own and say, ‘OK, I can sell that property.’ There is a process that we have to follow, and we are working on that. I want you to trust me that we are working on it.”
The Holy Family Parish was created when Immaculate Conception and St. David Catholic parishes merged in August 2023 as part of the Archdiocese of St. Louis’s “All Things New” initiative. At that time, the Archdiocese reported that the two parishes had a combined membership of 5,469 as of 2022.
Blessing said Holy Family is currently conducting a census to figure out how many members the parish currently has.
“We really don’t know what we have,” he said. “The new census is really important for us. We are doing the work.”
Early plans
Chiodini and Uphoff shared early ideas for the new church, and early plans call for a larger lobby than the one in the current church. The lobby will have restrooms, which the current one doesn’t have.
In addition, the new church will include an adoration chapel and cry room that also may be used as a meeting room. There currently is no adoration chapel or cry room in the church building.
The architects also drew two alternative plans for either a full basement or partial basement under the church. They said the basement would include a kitchen, meeting area and restrooms.
Chiodini said he consulted with two contractors and determined that a $5 million budget was adequate to build the new church, and possibly to build it with a basement area. The current church has no basement.
He also said the architect firm looked at three sites on the Church Road campus, which also includes the Holy Family School, Parish Center and cemetery, to determine the best location for the new church.
Chiodini said the new church will have a bell tower similar to the current Immaculate Conception Church, and the parish will see if it can transfer some items, like stained glass windows, crucifixes, statues and Stations of the Cross from the parish’s two existing churches into the new church.
“We are going to be looking at everything that we can do to build character into this church,” he said. “The bell tower is really a symbol of the area, and I think it is important to try to reproduce something similar to that.”
Lydon said Holy Family will need to follow guidelines in the Built of Living Stones, a manual produced by the American bishops. He, along with Blessing and the architects, also stressed that available funds will guide the majority of construction decisions.
“There is a lot of latitude in (Built of Living Stones), but I think it is a key to making decisions,” he said. “We are not going to get everything that we want. It is a difficult process, but it is a beautiful thing to create a worship space.”
Going forward
Blessing told the town hall attendees that if they had concerns or other ideas about the new church they may email them to him at frblessing@holyfamilyarnold.org, adding that the parish may set up a separate email for members to send their thoughts about the new church.
Blessing said he would share the ideas with the parish’s building committee and architects.
He also said Chiodini Architects will present three design options, and the parish will likely have another meeting with members to discuss the plans.
“Your input is important, and your thoughts are important,” Blessing said. “In the end, somehow we have to put all of those thoughts together and come up with a plan that everybody can buy into. It will not be exactly what you think, or exactly what I think. I hope everyone gets what they want, but more than likely, none of us are going to get everything we want.
“We are going to make the best of it. We are going to do this, and I feel like it is going to be great.”