Morinville residents say they want the new St. Jean Baptiste Church to have bells, a steeple, and a community hall, a recent survey has found.
Morinville residents got an update Feb. 12 and 13 on plans to rebuild the St. Jean Baptiste Church building as part of an open house held after the parish’s weekend mass at Notre Dame Elementary.
Morinville’s 114-year-old St. Jean Baptiste Church burned down on June 30, 2021. Parish members plan to build a replacement church, and have so far collected several statues, a Casavant organ, and about $230,000 to aid in its construction.
The parish ran an online survey with 385 responses in December and January to determine what features the community wants in the replacement church, rebuilding committee chair Ron Cust said in a Feb. 10 interview.
Cust said the survey found residents want the new church to look similar to the old one so it will fit in with the nearby convent and rectory.
“They wanted to have a steeple, and they wanted to have bells included,” Cust said.
The survey found residents want the church to have both a modernized audio-visual system and a meeting centre or community hall for events or overflow space. While the old church could fit about 750 people, Cust said respondents want the new one to be slightly smaller, with a capacity of 400 to 600 — equivalent to what the church saw during Christmas mass. The survey also collected opinions on the church’s flooring, furnishing, and colour scheme.
Cust said the committee will hire an architect to draw up plans for the new church based on the survey’s results later this year. Pending insurance payments and approval from the province, construction of this roughly $10-million building could start later this year.
Questions on the church project should go to Cust at 587-783-5134.
