Although it is still unclear when the physical doors of St. Bonaventure Church in Huntington Beach will re-open, during Easter weekend the faithful viewed live-streamed first peeks at the inside of the renovated church.
A year and a half and 200 loads of concrete after reconstruction began, and with a certificate of occupancy in hand, the church awaits only the lifting of the state’s stay-at-home order and the approval of the diocese to move in.
For the first time since work began in September, 2018 on a $7.9 million project that structurally shored up the church and added upgrades and repositioning, Masses were celebrated and live-streamed over the Easter weekend. On Sunday, April 19, the church received another treat when Bishop Kevin Vann celebrated the Divine Mercy Sunday Mass at the church, also shown via video.
With the 900-seat church finally open for services, even if they are only virtual for now, the homestretch is in sight for parishioners who have sat through Masses in the cramped confines of the church hall, endured delays because of a historically rainy winter in 2018-2019 and, finally, a pandemic that shuttered churches across Southern California.
“We feel a little like the people of Moses denied entrance,” joked Charles Falzon, parish manager.
“The whole parish has looked forward to the opening,” said Vanessa Frei, director of marketing and enrollment at St. Bonaventure School, noting the original target date for the reopening had been July 19, 2019.
Ironically, in March this year, Frei said the long-awaited certificate of occupancy for the church arrived the same day Gov. Gavin Newsom issued his executive stay-at-home order.
Although the wait has been long, leaders say the reconstruction of the church really couldn’t wait. Studies showed that since it opened on Easter in 1971, the center of the church had sunk six to nine inches. That required the pouring of an 18-inch slab and soil stabilizing, Falzon said.
Kim White, principal of St. Bonaventure Catholic School, called the extended reconstruction period “a spiritual and prayerful adventure,” filled with “a full range of emotions with loneliness and longing intermixing with faith and hope.”
“We gathered in His name as ‘living stones’ as we renovated His spiritual house,” Father Joseph Knerr, parish pastor, said in a prepared statement.
In addition to pouring the slab, a number of other changes were made, including turning the church to face west, installing an elegant baptismal font, removing chandeliers, installing a large Belgian tapestry, changing the courtyard, relocating the organ and building a new chapel. As important to many parishioners, according to Church leaders, the bathrooms were expanded and updated.
Many of the features of the original chapel were retained, Falzon said, including imported windows from France, and the church’s iconic Holy Spirit window.
“It feels like a new church, but with the original feel,” Falzon said.
Frei said the new orientation of the church also changes the way the light filters through the windows….
The above comes from a May 6 story in Orange County Catholic.
Question: Where is the Tabernacle?
An important improvement. When ya gotta go, ya gotta go.
More modern ugly.
Where is the Tabernacle? Might I ask where is the high altar, statues, communion rail, sanctuary lamp, and of course the most important question: Where is the Traditional Latin Mass??????
Romulus, Amen !
Two things strike me about the poverty of the modern church building, of which this is a good representative. The first is the set-up for the altar, which while not precluding a Mass said ad-orientem, makes it seem a bit awkward as there is nothing particularly inspiring for the priest or people to look at while facing east. And I miss the communion rail most of all. It is obvious one cannot receive kneeling if, like me, one is older and less mobile. I was so very fortunate to attend a parish (St. Rita’s, Sierra Madre) that had a communion rail and used it until the pastor retired, some time in the late 90s. Oh how such a sense of reverence was to be had receiving the sacred host while kneeling!
It is a “blessing in disguise” that the people are not allowed in the church building.
Take a look at St. Rita’s in Sierra Madre California, not sure what it is supposed to be? Something out of Star Trek or Star Wars, it says nothing about the Roman Catholic faith and have no idea what the purple “thing” hanging on the wall represents! Dan are sure they had a communion rail? It is full blown Novus Ordo now or always has been, nothing remotely Catholic about it.