DCR: Holy Trinity Church unveils new worship space

This week’s edition of the Denver Catholic Register has a color photo of our altar on the front, and a nice article with a black and white photo on page 5. Here’s our version of roughly the same image in color:

Click for a larger version

Here is an excerpt from the DCR article:

Holy Trinity Church unveils new worship space

By John Gleason

Last month, parishioners at Holy Trinity Parish in Westminster marked the completion of a $2.6 million remodel of their worship space.  The newly renovated church, located at 7597 Federal Blvd. in Westminster, was celebrated in a series of thanksgiving Masses and receptions on May 15-16.

Founded in 1948, this was the first time the church proper had undergone any remodeling, according to Holy Trinity pastor Father John Hilton.

“Oh we’ve rearranged the furniture a few times,” he said with a chuckle, “but this is the first major renovation that’s been done to the church.”

Prior to the remodeling of the worship area, Holy Trinity Parish built a multi-purpose parish hall in 2007 which can be used as a meeting hall, socialization area and gymnasium. The following year, the parish renovated their adoration chapel.

In the last decade, Holy Trinity has seen its population more than double.  Today 2,600 families attend Mass there, so an increase in the size of the worship space was of primary importance.

To do this, part of the existing west wall was knocked down and other walls were extended to increase the size from 7,000 to 9,000 square feet, allowing for more pews on the main floor and another 40 added to the choir loft.

Confessionals near the altar were removed allowing for the addition of new windows to provide more natural light to the area.  The confessionals were relocated at the rear of the church. A bell tower was also added.

Integration Design Group was the architect of the project; construction was handled by R.N. Fenton and Company of Denver.

See the whole article here:
http://www.archden.org/index.cfm/ID/4018

Read Full Post »

Dedication of Our Church

In today’s bulletin, Father Hilton writes:

Does it seem like a long time since we started the renovation of our church? I know that many of us, from the Design Committee to the Finance Council, from our Architect to our dedicated staff, and all those who were involved in the planning and executing this project put forth the best of our efforts and energies. All of us were determined to use our gifts of generosity for the greatest honor of God and to provide future generations of parishioners with a beautiful place in which to worship. We hope that, when you walk into your new church, you will feel that we have achieved our goal, because during all the planning and executing stages we had you, as well as our Lord, in mind.

Traditionally, our Catholic churches have been designed as places of peaceful beauty for two reasons: First, because we instinctively know that God is the Creator of all that is beautiful and, as King David so many centuries ago, we want to honor Him by making for Him a home that is worthy of Him. Second: because when we gather in a beautiful place our minds turn more easily towards God, who is Beauty Himself. Many of our adorers, for instance, tell me that they find rest and gather strength every time they visit the Eucharistic Adoration Chapel: that was our goal, and it has been our goal as we planned, designed and transformed the church. I encourage you to look around, observe all the details, and tell me whether you agree that we have achieved our goal.

You will also notice that we have tried to make the space as comfortable as possible for you: the pews are a little farther apart, so those with long legs will not “bump” in the kneeler behind them. If you pardon me for saying it, I think that the Choir loft not only is beautiful, but it does more justice to the voices of our choir members. How about our confessionals? They are elegant, but more importantly, they will give greater privacy to everyone and the sound-proof wall coverings will make sure that no whisper can be heard outside. We gave special attention to our Marian Chapel, where our beautifully restored statue of the Blessed Virgin finds her home. The raised ceiling, the “clerestory,” with high windows give us more light and greater height. The best part, of course, is our Sanctuary, our new altar area. It is difficult to be distracted during Mass when our eyes are attracted to the exquisite work that required the greatest amount of thought and skill in execution.

Of course, the fact that we now have air conditioning for the Summer will make everyone more comfortable.

I pray that you are thrilled with how our renovated church has turned out. More importantly, I pray that our new church will be a rich source of blessing for you, your children and grandchildren. I again thank you for your generosity and sacrifice, which made all this possible, and I know that those parishioners who will come to the Holy Mass in the future will thank you, just as we thank those who fifty years ago first built the Parish of Holy Trinity that we love. God’s blessings upon you and your family!

Fr. John Hilton and Fr. Carlos Bello

Editor’s note: Click the embedded links for more about Holy Trinity Parish in Westminster and this remodeling project. Thank you to Allan Eckert, Dave Koski and Nancy Thompson for the images.

Read Full Post »

Reviewing the On-line Project Folder

On 1 October 2008, this blog posted PDF files of the design proposal discussed at the “Thank You” dinner earlier that week. You can find the description and the original images here: https://2008remodel.wordpress.com/2008/10/01/on-line-folder/

Comments are open!

Read Full Post »

This Blog is 2 Years Old!

The Holy Trinity Catholic Church Renovation Project blog started on 16 March 2008, which makes this past week our two year anniversary. This blog has been a learning experience for the authors, and hopefully we have provided some insight into the project for parishioners and the general public. Thank you to Father John Hilton for the chance to present this, and for his continued support. Thank you also to our contributors and commentators. To echo what we said in our 1 year anniversary post, “It has been a good year. Here’s to a great year 3”.

Before we start some naval gazing, we mention that comments are always welcome.

Statistics:

Your authors are self-admitted stats geeks, and WordPress gives us lots of tools to measure our results. As of today, the blog has 248 posts, and 115 comments. We average about 200 people per day dropping by to visit. The busiest day on record was 28 September 2009, with 649 visitors. The busiest month was November 2009, with 7,861 visits.

Top Pages

After the home page, the top 10 pages in the last two years, based on number of views, are:

#	Page	Views
1.	The Holy Trinity by El Greco	18,922
2.	The Coronation of the Virgin by El Greco	17,134
3.	Architecture 101: Inside your Church	11,812
4.	The Holy Trinity by van Balen	10,787
5.	The Holy Trinity by Tiepolo	7,122
6.	Madonna and Child by Botticelli	4,224
7.	Architecture 101: Romanesque, Sant’Ambrosio	3,592
8.	Houston’s New Co-cathedral	3,477
9.	Adoration of the Trinity by Dürer	3,403
10.	JPII on Images of the Mother of God	2,941

Two page with the lowest total visits (1) are Construction: West Exterior on 9 September and Nave on 4-MAR.

Search Engine Terms

The following table documents which words or phrases our visitors used in a search engine to find.

#	Search Engine Term	Views
1.	el greco	20,704
2.	holy trinity	6,007
3.	trinity	4,843
4.	el greco paintings	4,493
5.	botticelli	3,297
6.	parts of a church	3,250
7.	tiepolo	2,230
8.	the holy trinity	1,534
9.	giovanni battista tiepolo	1,017
10.	inside a church	746

This suggests that many visitors come here to find paintings and the works of artists, especially those featuring the Holy Trinity. We hope those who found us for the paintings have stayed to learn more about our project.

Curiously, #13 on the list of most popular search engine terms is “Dominican Jokes“.

Referring Sites

The statistics on the sites pointing to us are not as clear, because different URLs from the same site may show in different places. Each search engine page has a unique identifier. In aggregate, the main non-search engine pointers are:

#	Referrer	Views
1.	htcatholic.org	476
2.	newadvent.org	390
3.	custosfidei.blogspot.com	40
4.	asksistermarymartha.blogspot.com	17
5.	dominicanfriars.org	16

Referrer

We’re all looking forward to the opening of our church. Hopefully, this blog has helped document the many steps to get there.

Comments welcome!

Read Full Post »

Open House 14-15 November

At tonight’s building committee meeting, we found out that the open house has been delayed for one week due to the recent snow.

Stand by for more details.

Read Full Post »

Tonight’s Quote from Father Hilton

During tonight’s Committee Meeting, Father Hilton made this statement:

“The City of Westminster has been wonderful to work with.”

Adam agreed!

Read Full Post »

Happy Anniversary 16 March

This blog started exactly one year ago on 16 March 2008. The first two posts are:

1. Mission and Vision
2. Now: How we look today

So far, this blog has had 50,549 views (as of 9:25PM tonight.) We’re averaging over4000 hits per month for the last three months. A lot of people come to see El Greco and the Holy Trinity. Hopefully others want to learn about our project.

It has been a good first year. Here’s to a great year 2!

Read Full Post »

Bells

A note from Father Hilton on how we’ll get the bells for our bell-tower (from the 29 June 2008 bulletin.)

Our beloved Holy Trinity Parish is coming to the end of another fiscal year, and we start fresh on July 1st. A number of you ask me from time to time how the parish is doing financially, especially during these times when expenses are going up, seemingly faster than incomes. Holy Trinity parish expenses are no exception, and I thank you for your concern…

Now let me tell you about the children’s collection. It does our hearts good to see our kids come to the Altar during the Holy Mass with their dime, quarters, and dollars that they have saved out of their allowance. Congratulations to their parents as well, because they are teaching their children to be generous to the Lord Who loves them and to Whom they owe everything. I thought that it would be very fitting to use the children’s gifts to purchase the bells that will be placed in our new church bell tower (yes, there’s going to be a bell tower). Somehow, the happy sound of bells and the sound of children’s voices go well together.

Image above from Brosamer’s Bells, a Michigan used bell reseller.

Read Full Post »

Come to our Townhall Meeting 26 August

TOWN HALL MEETING
TUESDAY 26 AUGUST 2008
7:00PM IN THE FR. PUHL PARISH CENTER.

We have a design. We have updates. All we need is you!

“There’s a Meetin’ Here Tonight!” sung by Joe and Eddie. See the notes on our first town-hall meeting on 18 April here, and a meeting recap here.

Read Full Post »

Preparing For the Next Fifty Years

TOWN HALL MEETING – AUGUST 26, 2008
“OUR CHURCH: PREPARING FOR THE NEXT FIFTY YEARS”

About fifty years ago, jammed into a small Quonset hut for the Holy Mass, in the sweltering summer heat of Denver, Fr. Puhl’s small flock was dreaming of a beautiful new Catholic campus that would one day come into being. The campus would include a beautiful church, of course, but as long as they were dreaming, they were hoping to have a Catholic school for their children and their grandchildren; and of course, a convent for the Sisters who would teach those children, and a house for the priests.

That was quite a dream that those long-ago parishioners had. They were faithful folks, with large families, small homes and modest jobs. The one large thing in their lives was their love for the good God, for His Church, and for their families. Father Puhl heard their dreams, their wishes, and he took a great step in faith. He made a deal with them: you be as generous as you can be, and I’ll do the very best I can do to make our dream a reality. And together, they did make it a reality.

Many of those “founding parishioners” are still coming to Holy Trinity, and fifty years later, we are still enjoying the fruits of their dreams and generosity. When I look around all that those few hundred families gave to us: our church, our school, our convent and our rectory, I am amazed at the largeness of their vision and the generosity that inspired them.

As you know, next year we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the dedication of our church and school. You also know that since January I have been meeting with our architect and a team of dedicated people made up of parishioners who represent both the original families as well as the new ones who have joined our congregation over the past several years. All of us at Holy Trinity love our fifty year old church, and we do our best to keep it in good repair. But, as our 50th anniversary approaches, we are also dreaming a little. The Committee has been asking the question: “How do we prepare our church for the next fifty years, how do we make it even more worthy for the celebration of the Holy Mass and more comfortable and welcoming for our people?”

Since January, this “Focus Committee” has been meeting almost every week with our architect, Adam Hermanson, to develop a design for a thorough remodeling and beautification of our church. I am thrilled with the design that has been developed, and I can hardly wait to show it to you! Would you, please, come and see? What will the church look like after it has been remodeled? Come and see, and bring some friends! All I’ll say now is that if you like the way the remodeled Adoration Chapel has turned out, you’re going to love the design for the church (it is the same architect, after all)!

Our Town Hall meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, August 26th, at 7:00 pm in the Fr. Puhl Hall. Please come, you’ll be glad you did! Refreshments will be served.

— Fr. John Hilton

Read Full Post »