FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1) What are the proposed construction projects?
Our anticipated construction projects will roll out in a phased approach. The first phase will consist of a new church with seating for 1,400 and a small chapel. A subsequent phase will construct offices, meeting rooms, a parish social hall, rectory, and associated parking. We hope to build an elementary school in our second phase after the first phase is complete.
2) Why are we building this new church?
Although our present church is only 16 years old, we have already outgrown it. Our current parish capacity (without the multipurpose room) is 498 seats, (648 seats with the MPR open). Given our limited seating capacity, we find ourselves often too full and parishioners often standing on the sides and outside the front door just to attend services. St. Jude’s is the fastest-growing parish in the diocese. The Kapolei / Ewa / Ko’Olina area is projected to grow by 40% over the next 10 years. The new church facility will provide a comfortable 1,400-seat church, a small chapel, a parish social hall, and much-needed offices, meeting room spaces and an on-site rectory to support the requirements of our growing parish.
Because this would be the largest church in the diocese, we also expect that St. Jude’s will eventually host many diocesan events like the Bishop’s Mass, ordinations, Holy Day Masses, etc.
3) Who are the architects for the new church?
St. Jude has selected the firm of Barduson Architects Inc., headquartered in Phoenix, AZ, as the primary architect for our new church. They have decades of experience planning, designing and building Catholic churches and schools in many diocese across the country. Since a requirement for doing work in Hawaii is to have a local firm present, they have partnered with the firm of Group 70 as the local partner, a general architectural-engineering firm here in Honolulu, to assist us with developing the conceptual design for the new property.
4) What is the overall cost of the proposed projects?
At this early, conceptual phase of the project design and discernment process, the overall cost of the projects is still a moving target. Much of what we will be able to achieve will depend on the early success of our fundraising campaign, which will focus primarily on raising the funds necessary to build the church.
Additional projects may be financed by a number of options, e.g., foundation and other private support, sale of our current church later on, and borrowing against the equity of the new land at Leihano. At this time, we ask for your prayerful support and, later, your full,
meaningful participation in our fundraising effort so that we may achieve the full vision for our new spiritual home in Leihano.
5) Who is in charge of the design process for our new facilities?
Father Khanh is being advised by a core team of parishioners representing all of St. Jude’s ministries. This team is actively involved with the site development process. In addition, the design process has been informed by the feedback of over 60 parishioners through two visioning design charrette’s.
6) I don’t like x feature of the renderings. Is this really what it will look like?
Thank you for your feedback! We are still in the design process and will take your input into account as we further develop the vision for our new spiritual home.
7) I already contribute to weekly collections and/or other giving opportunities. What is the difference between my contributions to “Offertory,” “Land Mortgage,” and the capital campaign? Why am I asked to contribute more now?
We greatly appreciate your support for any/all of our fundraising initiatives. St. Jude maintains distinct giving categories to support a variety of current needs. Remember, until the new church is completed, we must use and maintain our existing church and rectory. The following outlines various parish fundraising appeals and their purpose:
* “Offertory” funds refer to those funds dedicated to the daily expenses of running the existing St. Jude church and rectory. These expenses include utilities, salaries, pastoral outreach and youth programs, and other materials needed for ministries and programs.
* “Land Mortgage” refers to those funds used exclusively to pay the existing $14.5 Million mortgage for the 11 acres of land St. Jude purchased for the new church facility in October, 2014.
Gifts to the capital campaign will provide significant extraordinary reserves for parish construction projects. Capital funds do not go to the operating budget, but provide the necessary support to fund projects driven by the current and future needs of our parish.
8) Why do we have to continue to pay for our existing church?
Until our new church and rectory are built, we must continue to use our existing facilities. That means we will continue to have expenses for electricity, water, telephone, and minor maintenance bills for our existing buildings, as well as the continuing requirement to support the parish staff and general operations. All these expenses are only funded through your “Offertory” contributions, so please do not discontinue your generosity there.
9) I thought St. Jude’s mortgage was paid in full.
You are correct. We successfully paid our previous mortgage for our existing facilities in 2013. The good news is that our current real property has grown in value (equity) and we may decide to use this equity, along with the Rectory equity, to help support the new construction. The new mortgage is for the new land (11 acres) that we purchased in October 2014.
10) How long will this Capital Campaign run?
The fundraising timeline of the campaign consists of the quiet phase, which we are in currently, and the public phase. The public phase will begin early in the New Year when the Campaign Executive Committee has determined that sufficient initial support has been raised and momentum has been gained. The active fundraising campaign is anticipated to conclude towards the end of the spring.
The entire design, bid, build construction timeline for phase one, focusing on the church and 3 facilities is expected to span 60 months after we complete our capital campaign collection, with initial construction projects estimated to begin in 2018. The Parish Building Committee is actively seized with laying out a phased construction timeline.
The campaign pledge fulfillment period will extend up to five years to allow parishioners to have a more meaningful impact with their giving over time. Donors may give a one-time gift, or with regular weekly or monthly electronic contributions.
11) How is the capital campaign being managed?
St. Jude has retained CCS as fundraising counsel. CCS has worked with St. Jude and the Diocese of Honolulu for the With Grateful Hearts diocesan campaign and has experience managing thousand of parish campaigns over the past 60 years.
The campaign will follow a strategic, phased approach. CCS conducted a feasibility and planning study in May 2015, with the participation of 52 in-person strategic conversations and over 670 in-pew surveys. Please speak to Courtenay O’Connor ([email protected]) for more information about the fundraising strategy.
12) How can I contribute to the fund to build the new St. Jude church?
Thank you for your willingness to participate in this historic effort for our parish community! Over the next six months, all families will be asked to participate in the fundraising campaign. We anticipate a parish-wide campaign launch early in the New Year. In the meantime, parish leaders and volunteers will be taking a strategic and measured approach, quietly approaching a small number of families, foundations, and local businesses that may
be able to help lay a strong foundation for our campaign and position it to be as successful as possible.
At this time, we ask the parish to get to know and understand the projects, and how they respond to our growing parish’s needs. In time, we will be asking for help from volunteers in various capacities – stuffing envelopes, manning phone banks, approaching other parishioners for support, and more. Please sign up accordingly for any opportunities that you would like to take part in!
Later in the campaign you will be approached by a volunteer who will answer any remaining questions that you have and personally invite your participation. Please consider your support with an open heart and pray for our success.
13) I can’t give a million dollars. What can I do?
All contributions – no matter what size – will be a great help to St. Jude, and any amount will be welcome. In order to be successful, we are looking for equal sacrifices, not equal gifts. We invite you to pray about a meaningful sacrifice for you and your family. The purpose of pledged commitments is to allow you the opportunity to stretch in your giving, contributing smaller amounts that have a greater overall impact over time. We will provide you with gift planning guidelines when you are approached to participate.
14) Who collects our contributions?
St. Jude has an arrangement with the Diocese of Honolulu whereby they to collect all electronic “Land Mortgage” and “Capital Campaign” contributions in our name. These funds are separate from all other diocesan or other parish funds, and can only be used for this St. Jude church construction. All “Offertory” collections are done through St. Jude itself. Parish income usually has an assessment to help run the diocesan offices. Maintenance and Building funds for St. Jude are exempt from diocesan’s assessment.