From the Diocese of the Rio Grande, New Mexico parishioners are thinking “outside the box” for their church building plans:
RIO GRANDE: New Mexico parishioners seek creative solutions for building drive
Parishioners at a growing New Mexico parish are praying for a miracle and hustling to raise a final $75,000 to build a much-needed sanctuary.
The Rev. Robert Mundy, vicar of St. Matthew’s, Los Lunas, in the Albuquerque-based Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande, said plans for a 3,500-square-foot multipurpose building depend on creative solutions, member efforts, fundraising and, hopefully, a miracle.
It wouldn’t be the first for the church. The 11-year-old congregation began with a few families using bales of hay for pews in a local feed store on Mother’s Day, 1999. Shortly afterwards, St. Matthew’s moved to its present location, a vacant chapel on a former state facility for the disabled. Recently, the state has begun phasing out the campus.
Feeling the press of time, the congregation, which has doubled in size in the past four years, to 60, began feverishly fundraising.
That’s when the “miraculous” began happening, said Mundy . . .