St. Michael Archangel Church Project

Letter from the District Superior, Rev. Robert Brucciani, July 2021

Dear Faithful,

After twenty years in our makeshift chapel at St. Michael’s School, we are delighted to announce a project to construct a new church on the same property. A growing congregation and the inadequacy of the present chapel (it is both too small and wanting in magnificence) lend increasing urgency to the project.

Design

The design is almost finalised. The church will be located on the vegetable patch to the immediate left of the main entrance. It will be of romanesque proportions, faced in red brick and tiled to complement the existing school buildings. It will have a capacity of about 240 souls, together with a large windowed narthex (“cry room”). The sanctuary will be large enough for a Solemn High Mass and will be flanked by two chapels and large wrap-around sacristy.

The surrounding land will be landscaped and developed for parking and a new school drop-off point. The church will be independent of the school buildings so that it can remain open all day.

Timescale

  • 2020 Dec: Architects appointed
  • 2021 Jan: Project team appointed
  • 2021 Jun: Pre-application
  • 2021 Aug: Planning application
  • 2022 Jan: Tendering
  • 2022 Jul: Construction begins
  • 2023 Jul: Construction ends

Cost & Funding

The budget is £2 million of which half will be paid from the recent sale of St. Gabriel’s, Highclere, and half must come from fundraising efforts. The fundraising target is therefore a heady £1 million, but to date, we have raised £176,000 for the project.

A new website has been launched to manage the fundraising efforts and we appeal to your generosity to contribute: www.stmichaelarchangel.co.uk

Angelic Protection

The project is naturally under the patronage of St. Michael Archangel, as patron of the school. If Providence permits the project to be realised, this church will be the first church built for the glory of the Tridentine Rite of Mass in this country for half a century. It will be a banner unfurled in the battle that has raged since the beginning of time, and a sign of contradiction to the conciliar church and to a world in the throes of Marxist revolution. It will be a protection and source of grace for our families. And, by the sacrifice of our vegetable patch, it will be a seedbed of vocations!

Please pray for the success of the project.

St. Michael Archangel, pray for us.

In Jesu et Maria,

Rev. Robert Brucciani

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