My name is Jock Janaszek and I am the Facility Director here at Resurrection Parish. I’ll be doing monthly postings to keep you updated on the maintenance happenings around the campuses of both St. Thomas More and St. John Capistran.
To start, we have four very important things that need attention at St. Thomas More:
#1 The first is our electrical service panels in the church. They are original to the building and they are manufactured by Federal Pacific which has been unapproved by UL Laboratories. (They are classified as unsafe.) We had a breaker go out last year and it was very difficult to locate a replacement. With that being said, it will cost us $32,000 to have these panels replaced and we will have to shut the church down for a week to get this done. Our priests will have to move out for the week.
#2 One of the biggest complaints I hear is about our kneelers at St. Thomas More. They are 32 years old and the padding is mostly nonexistent. So, I have been doing some research on getting new kneelers. Here’s what I have found - We have 274 kneelers in the church, all different sizes. The cost to get new kneelers, which would be a blue vinyl covering with a 1” dense padding, would be close to $24,000. To pay for this, I am asking you, our parishioners, to consider sponsoring a kneeler in the section you regularly sit in. We are asking for our parishioner families to sponsor a kneeler at $100, or whatever amount you can sponsor. I have volunteers lined up who are willing to help install the new kneelers, which will save us money on labor.
#3 Shortly, we will be getting new railings around the Baptismal Font at St. Thomas More. The current railing is a safety hazard and needs to be replaced. We have contracted with a parishioner who owns a business that can do this for us. This money came from donations and from our Church Alive Campaign funds.
#4 We are also adding more security at St. Thomas More Church by adding Magnet Locks on all exterior doors in the church. In a push of a button, we can lock down the church in an emergency situation.
I hope you would consider donating to our projects. Please go to www.resurrectionpgh.org/kneeler-sponsor for the online Kneeler Sponsor form or visit the parish offices.
At St. John Capistran, we have just installed new security measures in the rectory office and in the church. Soon we will be getting the parking lot repaved, along with other upgrades around the church property. The main service panels at St. John Capistran are also by Federal Pacific. These are now in the process of being replaced. These improvements are being paid for from the leftover funds of the Church Alive Campaign that were designated specifically for St. John Capistran.
A letter from Fr. Mike and Fr. Jim ran in our March 2023 bulletins regarding the Diocesan Campaign for the Church Alive fundraising that took place in 2014. The funds that were collected during this campaign are specific to each church. The money raised can ONLY be used for facility improvements at the designated location where the funds were collected.