Forward in Faith

The Future of All Saints Roman Catholic Parish

Our Mission.

All Saints Parish welcomes you to be a part of this exciting and dynamic capital campaign to create a new church building

including much-needed auxiliary space for programming and celebrations. This new home for All Saints Parish will address

the needs and aspirations of Catholics in Lethbridge now and for future generations!

All Saints Parish is committed to the larger mission of the Universal Catholic faith. Our purpose as a parish is to contribute

to building the Kingdom of God on earth, grounded in the teachings of Jesus, by upholding faith, justice, peace, and the

dignity of all people and by advocating for social justice. Our mission is to remain steadfast in the love of Christ as parish

members and show that same love of Christ to the larger community in Lethbridge.

Our hope is to build a home where we can worship, learn, work and celebrate together.

History Leading Up to the Campaign

This campaign is almost 20 years in the making, dating back to 2006. Hundreds of hours of meetings, discussions, design and planning have been invested in preparing the parish to move forward on building our new church. We are grateful for the long-standing commitment of so many people over the last two decades. The parish has taken a careful and conservative approach to completing the necessary preliminary work and ensuring compliance with the Vatican ruling regarding the current churches before fully launching this vital campaign. For many years, we have been doing our very best with the buildings and resources we currently have. Through an extensive process of reflection, discussion and planning we have come to a place where we are ready to make changes that will better meet the needs of our church community.

Building on the Strength of Our People

As a parish, we value the spiritual health and growth of all of God’s children. We go to great lengths to ensure we are addressing the needs of the congregation. Supported by a small team of paid staff, All Saints Parish remains true to its roots as a strong and cost-effective volunteer church body. Much of the work of the church is reliant on the generous time of hundreds of volunteers with many talents and gifts. Having a new church building will provide greater efficiencies for both our volunteers and staff to work and collaborate. New meeting rooms, hall spaces and a gathering space that are modern, comfortable, open and well-lit will make our programs more welcoming and effective. For many of us, faith is the cornerstone of our lives. Now, we have a meaningful opportunity to come together as a church community, both to create a beautiful sacred space that inspires worship and supports our mission to evangelize, and to build essential auxiliary spaces that foster growth, connection and unity among us all.

Looking to the Future

This capital campaign, culminating in the completion of a new church, will transform our parish. A new church is a critical part of our vision to strengthen unity within our parish. We believe that our new church building will encourage parishioners and those outside our congregation to spend more time in the church.

Believers from our parish and surrounding areas will be drawn by its beauty to drop by during the day to spend time quietly praying, meditating or worshipping in the church or adoration chapel. Better facilities for events and programming mean the parish can offer more faith and community-building programs and be a bigger part of parishioners’ daily lives.

When we welcome those from our greater community to attend these events, programs and masses, we ultimately can contribute to growth of the Church as a whole. One of our missions as Catholics is to evangelize. The church space is an important component of this process.

Bishop Robert Barron’s Word on Fire Institute has beauty as one of its core principles for the evangelization of culture: “Lead with beauty, utilizing the beauty found in Catholic art, architecture, and culture to draw people to the faith.”

“Lead with beauty, utilizing the beauty found in Catholic art, architecture, and culture to draw people to the faith.”

— Bishop Robert Barron

The Call to Action

Our vibrant parish community has shaped the lives of thousands of families. In an unbroken tradition, people have gathered for Sunday Mass and sought God’s sacraments and graces during key moments in their lives – the baptism of children, the marriage of the young and the funerals of the aged. The parish pastoral outreach to those in need contributes in many ways to the well-being of our local community.

Lethbridge itself continues to evolve; school enrolments are increasing and pastoral planning affirms the vital future of the All Saints Parish. The need has never been greater, with almost 20 years of planning and waiting for the right conditions to move forward. The time is now!

Instead of continuing to invest in aging facilities that can no longer serve our needs, it is time to move forward, with the bishop’s endorsement, and build a new church that will unify our parish in a modern and efficient facility.

The design of our 900-seat nave and supporting facilities is progressing and the architects, FWBA Architects, have been busy refining plans for our new home which we hope to build and then occupy in the next 4-5 years.

To build, we need to receive leadership gift pledges of 70% ($14 million) of the campaign goal before approvals to move forward will be given by the bishop. We will then seek to secure the balance of the funds (30%/$6 million) from those in the congregation who have not yet committed. This would be the “public campaign” which would invite all to do their part to secure the project’s success.

“Faith is the realization of what is hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.”

— Hebrews 11:1

The Process

All Saints Parish has come to a critical juncture. After raising over $8 million, we are ready to launch a capital campaign to raise an additional $20 million that will meet our dreams and aspirations for a new church building.

The name of our capital campaign is titled Forward in Faith.

Step 1: Ensure financial feasibility of the project by receiving pledges for $14 million (70% of the total required $20 million)

Step 2: The Diocese of Calgary will support the project when the pledge commitments have been received.

Step 3: The parish moves forward with more detailed designs and construction drawings.

Step 4: Pledges are converted to financial contributions and a full public fundraising campaign begins to raise the remaining 30% ($6 million)

Step 5: Construction begins when the full $20 million in pledges and donations have been committed. Pledges can be made as a one-time commitment or multi-year commitment paid over time at regular intervals during the 5-year expected duration of the project (fundraising time, design and construction).

While non-financial contributions are welcome, only those that are financial in nature will be count towards the project’s required amount for feasibility.

Legacy gifts such as life insurance policies and estate donations are always welcome but their contribution towards the parish’s requirement for project feasibility will be considered on a case-by-case basis. A combination of both a current gift and a legacy gift would be greatly appreciated.

We are grateful for your commitment to our parish and our future.

May God bless our work together!