Archive: Around Town

Just one day short of a year after the ground breaking the congregation of Lansing's All Saints Catholic Church processed from the old sanctuary to the new, carrying the Book of Gospels and other items as they went.  "We processed over here at the time of the Gloria," says administrative assistant Dave Lippert.  "We had people singing just the refrain, 'Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth.'  This building was virtually empty and we walked in and people were singing.  As more and more people came in, it went from this big room to a building that was alive and you could see it happen, hear it happen."


The $1.7 million church seats 400 in the pews and another 20 in the choir area.  With a congregation of nearly 300 families, the church was nearly filled from the first Sunday.  "The first weekend we had 323," Lippert reports.  "The second weekend we had 424, and last weekend we had 272 which is about our normal average."


That would have been impossible in the old church building, which seats 249.  The first two weeks had more to celebrate than just the new building, but it certainly helped with the crowds.  The first week a set of twins was baptized, and on the second Sunday 19 kids received their first Communion. The next Saturday a wedding was conducted in the new church, and the Sunday after that the congregation honored it's graduating high school seniors.

The building is a spacious, open environment, a modern interpretation of traditional church architecture.  With enormous windows on the east and west ends of the buildings, a clearstory provides so much light that the lights could be turned off for the Sunday morning services.  Though constructed with steel beams, the look is simple, yet classical, warm and inviting.


Lippert says that while budget constraints meant simplifying the design, the intention was to make an intimate space that bonds worshipers with God.  "We believe that God is present in the community so why separate God from the community?" he says.  "God is present in the Word, and at the alter itself God is present in the bread and the wine as it becomes his body and blood is our teaching.  So it makes sense not to pull it apart.  That is a different theology that (drives) churches designs in a different time."

In a time when congregations across the country are shrinking, All Saints has the opposite problem.  The congregation has been growing to the extent that a new church became necessary, especially because with a shortage of priests adding additional services was not an option.  And Lippert says that the new church building is likely to attract new families as well.

"I think it does for a variety of reasons," he explains.  "I think a new building makes a statement in a community that this, and we talk about a church, this is a church community that's alive, it's made a statement, that we are here to serve this community.  We have known for a long time that there are a number of families who live in the Lansing school district who have not made a switch to come to church here because the building was too small so they didn't change.  But they like the idea that their children go to church with children they go to school with.  Familiar faces both adults and children draw people."


The church also celebrates the community with furnishings by local artists.  With rows of arched windows on each side of the sanctuary, the congregation commissioned seven stained glass windows for now, and plans another seven when they can afford more.  A beautiful mosaic baptismal font was made by local artist Linda Blossom.  The alter, the ambo (pulpit) and the presider's chair was made by Jim Nagle and Elizabeth Wolf in Brooktondale, and designed by Ithacan Mary McTiernan.  They are made of walnut from Danby, and Lippert says other items are made from Lansing walnut.  Ithacan Bill Bakerturning walnut candlesticks and building an ambry, a cabinet that holds the blessed oils used to anoint a person when they are baptized or other ritual purposes.

Pews are of carved wood, with flexible seating in the first few rows to allow for more seats, or more space for special events.  The pews came in pieces, but were laid out and assembled in three days.  The building was acoustically designed by architect Tom Schickle with tilted windows along the back to bounce echos toward the carpet.  And a sound system is built in so that everyone can hear.  A 'crying room' with is separated from the main worship area by glass has speakers so that parents with crying children can still see and hear services without disturbing the congregation.

Work on the building continues as contractors work to finish work in the basement and a 'punch list' of smaller items.  Lippert says that more items will be moved from the old church, and that the congregation is only now figuring out how best to use the new space.  Future plans call for moving administrative offices to the old church to make room for more classrooms, and long range plans will join the new church to the classroom and community building.

But even with the little bumps getting the building finished and discovering how it will enhance their worship, Lippert says it will fill the congregation's needs for a long time to come.  "We try to work on being a very open and welcoming community and kid oriented," he says.  "So we really work on those things and family oriented and all those things that go with that.  This should solve a lot of our space issues for a long time."

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