BAKERSFIELD, CA- It has been in the works for years, and this weekend, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church will break ground on a permanent site. They say it's the first new Catholic Church built in our area in more than 40 years.

The site is at the corner of Riena and Old Farm roads. Although It's just an empty lot now, there are big plans the property.

Msgr. Perry Kavookjian said, "I'm ready to have our own building that we can settle into, call home."

For nearly six years parishioners at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church have been going to mass at Frontier High School. Every Sunday, volunteers transform the school's theater into a church; hauling the alter, sound system, podium and other items needed for mass.

"People have been very enthusiastic and very supportive, definitely very generous," said Kavookjian.

He says with the expanding population, there is a need for another Catholic Church.

Kavookjian said, "Chances are, if you don't get there early enough, you're going to sit outside, or stand up. We've known for a while that some of those churches are bursting at the seams, which is a good problem to have."

Over the years, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton's congregation has grown to 1,000 families.

"Definitely the need is here and people have been waiting a while for a church to be built in this area," he said.

Soon, they'll have a place to call their own. The church will break ground on a 24 acre lot Saturday, beginning the first of three phases of construction.

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New Catholic Church site coming to northwest Bakersfield

Hallgrimskirkja Church in Reykjavik Iceland
Tour around the Hallgrimskirkja Church in Reykjavik, Iceland. Hallgrmskirkja (Icelandic pronunciation: [hatlkrimscrca], church of Hallgrmur) is a Luthe...

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Some Cedar Grove residents have pushed back in their latest efforts to curb a church expansion on Woodstone Drive.

ADAM ANIK/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church campus includes three buildings, two on the east side of Woodstone Drive, and one on the west side.

Officials at St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church want to expand its parking lot and facility to meet growing demand. But neighbors opposed to the expansion say they fear what rock blasting, the removal of trees and the increase of traffic might do to the neighborhood. Last month, at least five people wrote to a state agency currently reviewing the plan.

Marie Mead said she hand delivered a letter to 44 units in her Highpoint neighborhood, which borders the church, urging residents to write comments to the state Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), which is reviewing a request to waive its own designation as wetlands. The opponents wrote in time for a public comment period, which ended on Dec. 20, 2013, she said.

"We wanted them to express in their own words what it would mean to them," she said.

The proposal was in front of the local zoning board of adjustment, but was designated by the NJDEP as environmentally sensitive in late 2012. The church has since applied to the NJDEP for a waiver. Mead said she hopes the NJDEP denies the construction permit and argued that the church should find a more reasonable place to expand.

Mead said some of the blasting proposed as part of the plan could damage her basement, which is tied into the First Mountain bedrock. She said water coming from the mountain fills up the parking lot and occasionally, the basement, a situation that could be worsened by removing trees and adding pavement.

"Where do they think this water is going to go? They talk about swales and digging but that necessitates blasting to put these drains in," she said. Also, she added, the amount of traffic would make Bradford Road even more treacherous for drivers.

Church attorney Michael Piromalli was not available for comment.

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Neighbors of Cedar Grove church continue fight against expansion

By LENORA LAKE Special Correspondent

Published: December 30, 2013 | Updated: January 8, 2014 at 09:28 AM

TAMPA HEIGHTS An abandoned historical church soon will be filled with about 150 teens learning about cooking, computers, financial literacy, art and more.

Major reconstruction is expected to start soon on the Tampa Heights Youth and Community Center, which should open its doors in June at 2005 N. Lamar St., a low-income area just north of downtown Tampa.

The Tampa Heights Junior Civic Association has worked more than three years to get to this stage. During this time, executive director Patrick Sneed and the nonprofits board has been securing a lease, raising funds for the supplies, seeking grants and organizing volunteers.

We have the money approved to go ahead with the construction, Sneed said recently, adding that grants from the Sears Foundation and Hillsborough County government will total $100,000 of the $650,000 project. Most of the funds have been raised.

The plan calls for the 10,000-square-foot former Old Faith Temple Church to have an open community room and separate rooms for art, cooking, computers and business education as well as offices and a conference room. Local businesses, including the Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union, MIT Computers and the Columbia Restaurant Group are sponsoring the various rooms.

Richard Gonzmart of the Columbia Restaurant Group is donating a commercial kitchen to the facility, which is near the groups new Ulele Restaurant, currently under construction. Keith Sedita, managing partner of Ulele, is a junior civic association board member.

We want to come into Tampa Heights and make a difference. We want to change the statistics and improve the future, Sedita said.

The kitchen will provide training for students who may wish to enter the culinary field. They also would be able to work at the center, which will be available for rentals and catering, Sedita said.

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Historic Tampa Heights church to become community center

It's been 45 years since a new parish church has been built to serve Bakersfield's Catholic community.

That's a long dry spell for a city that has charted tremendous growth since 1968 when St. Philip the Apostle Church was established in Bakersfield's rapidly growing southwest.

But times are changing -- and soon that dry spell is expected to come to an end.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Bakersfield's newest Roman Catholic parish and the first centered in the city's northwest, will begin construction of its first-phase worship center and parish facilities beginning with a groundbreaking ceremony at 2 p.m. Saturday.

For those parishioners who have spent years working and praying for this moment, the event at the northwest corner of Old Farm and Reina roads -- the site of the planned 720-seat worship center -- symbolizes a new beginning, an opportunity to "get in on the ground floor" of a new Catholic parish.

At an estimated cost of $6.2 million, the facility will also include classrooms, meeting and office space, a children's center and a kitchen. An even larger worship center is planned in the not-too-distant future as projected growth demands.

The first-phase project was designed by Robert Habiger of Dekker/Perich/Sabatini, with revisions by Mark Russell, Radian Design Group. Construction is managed by S. C. Anderson.

"It's a real honor to be asked to do this," said Monsignor Perry Kavookjian, pastor of St. Elizabeth's since its formation in April 2008.

"You don't do this on your own," he said. "It's through the cooperation of people, their goodness and generosity, that something like this can happen."

Bishop Armando X. Ochoa, head of the Diocese of Fresno, will preside over Saturday's ceremony, ushering in a new era for the parish's nearly 1,000 families, who have been meeting for worship each Sunday in an auditorium at Frontier High School.

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First Catholic church in 45 years to break ground

The East of England was responsible for 17 per cent of all UK construction contracts awarded in a building spree in November, new data confirms.

The figures, taken from Barbour ABIs latest Economic and Construction Market Review, highlight marked growth in the UKs industrial construction sector, with the value of projects totalling 587 million in November - an 83.5 per cent increase on the same month last year.

The value of education construction contracts in the East of England totalled circa 100m in November, accounting for 18.8 per cent of the overall contracts awarded for the sector - an increase of five per cent from the same month last year.

Education jobs included a new purpose-built building at West Herts Colleges Dacorum campus and the refurbishment of St Johns Church School in Peterborough, part of the Governments 2bn Priority Schools Building Programme.

Other key projects highlighted locally were Lawford Mead Primary, West Town Primary and Suffolk New Academy which all fall under the Priority School Building Programme.

A major contributor to the overall upsurge was the 40m redevelopment announced for The Welding Institutes Granta Park headquarters in Cambridge.

There was also a strong performance from residential, industrial and infrastructure sectors. The report revealed overall growth in the UK construction industry of 6.8 per cent from October to November - a 56.5 per cent increase on the value recorded in November 2012.

Michael Dall, lead economist at Barbour ABI, said: The figures highlight strong performance in the education sector overall, but particularly in the East of England where this type of construction appears to be booming.

This is helped by the recent Autumn Statement in which the Government announced it will remove controls on the number of students who can attend higher education institutions in 2015-2016, creating an additional 30,000 student places at publicly-funded institutions in 2014-15.

It also committed an extra 40 million to deliver 20,000 apprenticeships in the next two years, offering a potential boost to the levels of output in the sector in the coming years.

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East of England leads UK construction spree

Colorado Springs, Colo. (PRWEB) January 06, 2014

On Sunday, Compassion International will commemorate the four-year anniversary of the catastrophic 7.0M earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010 with the completion of 10 building projects for church partners affected by the disaster. The buildings will serve as schools for local children and Compassion-assisted child development centers for children enrolled in Compassions holistic child development program.

On a day that brings the solemn remembrance of an earthquake that took thousands of lives, countless homes and the hope of a nation, we are so thankful to celebrate these solid new facilities, said Mark Hanlon, Compassion International senior vice president of global marketing and engagement. While it hasnt been easy, there has been incredible progress in Haiti as a result of the dedication and commitment of our field staff and church partners to the children we serve. I cant think of a better way to honor the past than to open new schools and child development centers for the children, the future, of Haiti.

Approximately 90 percent of children in Haiti attend private or church-run schools due to an unstable public school system. This allows Compassions church partners in Haiti to serve children who attend a school run by the local church as well as children enrolled in Compassions holistic child development program. As a result, an estimated 22,500 children will benefit from Compassion-funded building projects in Haiti.

In addition to the 10 completed church building projects, Compassion has nine church projects under construction with another 11 slated for construction within the next year. While relief and recovery efforts are far from complete, Compassion International joins its church partners in celebration of progress made.

Edouard Lassegue, Compassion International vice president of Latin American and Caribbean region, is available for interview. Please contact Tim Glenn at tglenn(at)us(dot)ci(dot)org or 719-272-5377 to schedule an interview with Edouard on the progress and rebuilding efforts in Haiti.

Compassion International is the worlds leading authority in child sponsorship. Compassion revolutionized the fight against global poverty by equipping the Church to develop children out of poverty to become responsible and fulfilled Christian adults. It is the only child sponsorship program to be validated through independent, empirical research. Today, Compassion partners with more than 6,000 Christian churches in 26 countries to release more than 1.4 million babies, children and students from poverty in Jesus name. Compassion has been awarded the highest rating for financial stewardship and transparency for 12 consecutive years by Charity Navigator, Americas largest charity evaluator. For more information on the ministry, visit compassion.com or follow on Twitter at @compassion.

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Compassion International Celebrates Rebuilding Efforts in Haiti on the Four-Year Anniversary of the Earthquake

WATERLOO | Queen of Peace Catholic Church, quite literally, unwrapped a Christmas present for its parishioners this past week in the first "steps" of an anticipated major renovation.

Most of the front of Waterloo's oldest Catholic church had been covered in plastic for a few weeks in December. Work crews are refinishing and renovating the church steps and reducing the size of adjacent planters.

The steps have been repainted over the years, making them slippery to navigate, particularly in inclement weather.

The current project, Queen of Peace parish council chairman Craig White said, has some traction to it.

"We're putting on a rougher coating to make them less slippery, and changing their color from gray to beige, to match the color of the church, which looks very nice," said White, also a Black Hawk County supervisor.

The planters are being reduced, re-bricked and lowered to ground level, White said.

That work was completed in time for Christmas services at the church.

Also, an elevator to accommodate persons with disabilities has been repaired, said the Rev. Dave Ambrosy, Queen of Peace pastor.

The steps and other work accomplished to date is the first part of what is anticipated to be the most extensive renovation of the church since an interior remodeling in 1996.

It involves work on flooring, carpeting, pews and a handicap-accessible approach to the altar sanctuary, Ambrosy and White said.

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Waterloo Catholic church 'steps up' to renovation

The toils and snares that led the First Baptist Church at Conshohocken to what it describes as an amazing new year back home were sparked by an errant blowtorch.

It touched off a fire that engulfed the Neo-Gothic church built in 1902 and flattened everything but its bell tower and an adjacent stone wall.

That was eight years ago.

It has taken that long for the congregation of 60 to muster the money and labor that has enabled them to spend the start of 2014 in their new building at Fourth Avenue and Harry Street.

"It's such a feeling of victory," said Eva Ross, 84, a longtime church member.

The congregation is celebrating completion of the first stage of a $3 million rebuilding that it had no idea would be eight years in the making.

Members are holding services in the fellowship hall, where they have a temporary occupancy permit. They held their first service there the Sunday before Thanksgiving. A formal dedication is planned for February or March.

But amid the celebration is the recognition that the church still has a long way to go. Classrooms, offices, a dining facility, and the sanctuary have yet to be completed.

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Conshohocken church rising from its own ashes

NEW YORKLocated in the heart of Wall Street, Trinity Church was the first Anglican church in Manhattan. Founded in 1697, the iconic church has a rich history, including several signers of the Declaration of Independence (Alexander Hamilton is one) being laid to rest in its burial grounds.

Aiming to preserve its 17st century roots while using 21st century technology to spread the message of the church, Trinity began planning the construction of a new control room early last year. The new control room was completed last month and is centered around a For-A 2 M/E HVS-390HS video production switcher.

The switcher first caught the attention of the house of worships director of media, production and operations, William Jarrett, at NAB 2013.

The HVS-390HS switcher is a perfect fit for our church, explained Jarrett. We appreciate the amount of inputs it offers and its optional video outputs. A frame synchronizer with every channel was also a big draw to us. We found that theres an elegance about it that inherently made sense. We needed a system that was easy to use, and the flow of the switcher is simple for our operators to understand.

In addition to using its video technology to perform IMAG (image magnification) production during Trinitys services, the parish webcasts all of its Sunday morning and weekday services onits website, reaching viewers worldwide. Concerts from its Grammy-nominated choir, conferences, and other special and live events are also webcast. The first major production in the new studio was HandelsMessiah, a widespread oratorio house of worship Christmas tradition that was first performed in the New World at Trinity Church.

The new control room was commissioned and blessed on December 8. The event was webcast on Trinitys website, and can be viewed onlinehere. Jarrett estimates that the switcher will be involved in 450-500 events throughout the course of a year.

In building a new control room, we made a commitment to doing it right and designing a system thats future resistant, said Jarrett. We live in a multi-platform world, and we created our control room and associated workflow with that as a focus. Its modular in design. Our technology is designed to ease the production process and make it more streamlined, and we have the ability to swap out a piece of equipment without that affecting everything else. Using high-quality technology to convey the mission of Trinity is critical to us, and FOR-As switcher is an integral part of our new control room.

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Trinity Church Updates with For-A Switcher