LINCOLN (SNR) – Members of St. Michael Parish in Lincoln gathered Sunday, Aug. 15 for a beam-signing to celebrate the construction on their new church, the first permanent church in its 112-year history.
A beam signing is a builder’s rite traditionally marking a milestone in the progress of a construction project, and was held five months after the project began. The new St. Michael Church is expected to be completed in the fall of 2022.
Parishioners signed a structural beam and a vinyl banner which will be displayed on significant dates and holy days. They signed their names and the date, and many included a Bible verse and personal comments.
Pastor Father Kenneth Borowiak called Aug. 15 – the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven – a fitting day for the event.
Borowiak dedicated the parish to Mary at the height of the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020.
“We regularly invoke the intercession of Mary for success in our building project,” he said. “Her words at the wedding feast of Cana, ‘do whatever He tells you,’ resonates clearly in this project,” Father Borowiak said.
He said the beam signing was a milestone worth recognizing and a time to celebrate God’s goodness to St. Michael parish.
Anita Severe, 96, a member of St. Michael parish for 70 years, said she was excited for the new church.
“It’s wonderful. We attended Mass in the first church that did not have electricity or running water,” she said. “This project is the culmination of a lot of planning and expectation,” she added.
Marilyn Maney, 86, a member of the parish since she was born, said her grandparents John and Anna Maney owned a 160-acre farm adjacent to the parish’s current campus.
Maney has served as CCD coordinator, as a reader and an usher at Mass.
“It is wonderful to see the new church go up,” she said. “It is a reminder that our Catholic faith is constant and vibrant.”
The construction project is the culmination of 15 years of planning and five capital campaigns. The parish, originally established in Cheney, on the east edge of Lincoln in 1909, relocated to 9101 S. 78th St. in southeast Lincoln in August 2011. The site includes a 52,000 square-foot building that houses a school for grades Pre-K through 8, a gymnasium, a commons area that has served as a temporary worship space, offices and auxiliary meeting rooms.
The current project will consist of 32,000 square feet on two levels that will feature a 750-seat capacity church in a Polish Baroque design, an adoration chapel, large narthex, choir loft, cry room, confessionals, a bride’s room, rooms for ministries and nine new classrooms. Construction began March 1. RDG and Clark Enersen Architects designed the building. Sampson Construction of Lincoln is the general contractor.
To follow the project, a walk-through animation of the new church is at stmichaellincoln.org. Additional still and drone photography is available at https://stmichaelpics.smugmug.com/
