521 Project
The Parishioners of St Anne and St Jude Roman Catholic Church are ready to build a new church on our 521 property where we can all worship together in one facility. Our new church will reflect the history and character of all peoples of our Catholic Community.
Vision for St. Anne and St. Jude Parish
Vision for St Anne and St Jude’s Parish: We at St Anne and St Jude’s Parish see the need for a new church building for our place of worship. Our present two structures, St Anne and St Jude’s Church are inadequate and unsafe, the physical structures have deteriorated to a point beyond repair. In addition,
these two churches have merged canonically and in spirit to form one parish, and our goal is to have one place of worship. We are a stable Catholic community that has been growing in size because of retirees, Shaw Air Force Base, the Third Army and Continental Tires. Retirees especially have added Catholic worshipers to our community which historically has a low percent of Catholics. Our Community has been planning, working and praying for nearly 15 years for one Church and campus. Within the next three to five years, we will build a new church to accommodate a minimum of 800 worshipers. Our
church will be built with the ability to expand and accommodate 1000 worshipers. We plan to eventually expand our campus to include a Catholic Schools system which will further enhance our ability to reach out to our surrounding community. We are guided by the following principles:
- Prayer and Divine Guidance will always be at the center of our efforts.
- We will be successful in reaching our vision not only by building the facilities we envision but also by building up the vitality and strength of our community; we will seek to inspire our community as we engage in this process.
- We will continue to consult the people of the parish in designing new facilities for St. Anne and St Jude’s Roman Catholic Church.
- The design of our new church will reflect our Catholic identity not only as part of the Universal Church but also will reflect the history St. Anne and St Jude’s parishes, which have been present for over 110 year and 79 years respectively.
- We will faithfully follow the vision for church design as defined by the Liturgy of the Church and by its guidelines for building worship spaces.
- We will also faithfully follow the processes for fundraising and church design of the Diocese of Charleston.
- We will exercise good stewardship in our planning and implementation of both fundraising and designing the new church; we will use wisely and responsibly the funds entrusted to the parish by donors, and we will embrace good stewardship of the environment in our site planning and
building. - In our new church, we will strive to build an edifice that can serve the parish and Church for generations to come, one that is beautiful and capable of supporting the richness of the liturgical and sacramental life of the parish as well as the richness of its devotional life.
How we got here and where we have been
Approximately 15 years ago Dr. Blanchard returned from a diocesan wide Synod and presented St. Anne’s parish with the Synod findings and the implications for our parish. The parish established a long-range planning committee headed by Dr. Mark Crabbe. During the long planning process, St. Jude’s parish was invited to join. The joint long-range planning committee evaluated our facilities, the Catholic population of the surrounding area and other factors. In several parish wide meetings and parish wide votes over several Sundays, both parishes voted to merge and move to the highway 521 site.
During this process, a real estate opportunity was presented regarding 192 acres located between Sumter and Shaw Air Force Base on a major thoroughfare, Highway 521. A group of parishioners headed by Jim Rogers from both St. Anne and St. Jude’s parishes formed a partnership and purchase property to preserve that opportunity for the Catholic Community. The pastors with the Bishop of Charleston purchased the property from the partners. The property was originally purchased for approximately Five Hundred Thousand Dollars. Funds were raised from the two parishes.
The pastors of St. Anne’s and St. Jude’s Catholic Churches had formed a joint committee called the Future Catholic Community Committee (Fc3) of members of both parishes to evaluate merging the parishes moving to one location and long-term construction needs. The Fc3 was headed by J Seth. When the partnership offered the property to the parishes, the joint committee reviewed many other locations. Permission was sought from the diocese and granted for the effort and the fundraising. Guidance in giving assisted the joint committee and raising $2.2 million (currently $2.6 million dollars in a Charleston Diocesan savings account).
The planning assumptions were as follows:
- Sale of the St Anne Property Initially
- $2.0 million dollars in initial campaign
- Eventual sale of the St. Jude property
- An additional capital campaign once one of the church sites were sold.
- A church and an educational building would be built.
Central in the early design phase was the concern for a new church for worship and the location nearby of a facility for CCD. Permission was sought from the diocese to retain an architect for the purposes of beginning the design of the new church and other facilities. In the process, it became evident that the original idea of a multipurpose building for CCD would be a major expense which could not be justified over the longer term. Keeping in mind the principle of having the CCD classrooms close to the church, it was felt to be more economical to proceed with building a Center of Faith Formation and Education (CoFFE) which could also accommodate the elementary school. All of these plans were presented over multiple parish wide meetings and accumulated from the community and incorporated into architect building plans. The architectural drawings of the church have been presented to the parish at several parish hall meetings for evaluation and feedback.
The Master plan was reviewed by the BRAC. Of the 192 acres, 57 acres were surveyed and set aside to provide for the location of the Church and other future buildings, including a Catholic School. The BRAC approved the preliminary hiring of the architect.
The financing of the construction of the new church with classroom space required the sale of the St. Anne site. The property was put up for sale and immediately the economic recession struck. Very little commercial real estate moved in Sumter for nearly a decade after. As such, construction plans were put on hold.
Pursuant to the long-range plan, the parish wide vote and the concurrence of our local pastors, a request was made to the Bishop to combine St Anne’s and St Jude’s parishes in order to form one Parish in Sumter, which was done. This combined parish went by the name of the Catholic Community of Sumter pending a decision to rename it. Fr. Frank Palmieri renamed the parish St. Anne and St. Jude Roman Catholic Church in order to preserve the history of both parishes.
RECENTLY, THE PARISH COUNCIL AND PASTORS HAVE REEVALUATED THE MASTER PLAN AND HAVE DECIDED TO MOVE FORWARD WITH THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE NEW CHURCH AT THIS TIME, AS THIS IS OUR HIGHEST BUILDING PRIORITY.