St. Anne Catholic Community

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

St. Anne Catholic Community is a Roman Catholic Church of the Archdiocese of Chicago located in suburban Barrington, Illinois, approximately thirty-two miles northwest of Chicago. The only Catholic parish in the Barrington area, St. Anne's was originally dedicated in 1884. In 2000, the parish expanded significantly to accommodate its 3,700+ registered parishioner families; at the time, its Campus Development Plan was the largest in the modern history of the Archdiocese.^[1] In 2000, the newly-expanded church received the Association of Licensed Architects Award of Excellence in Architecture for its limestone and neo-Gothic design.^[2]^[3]

The current St. Anne campus features a 1300-seat, two-story Worship Space, a 160-seat chapel^[4] (site of the original church), and the St. Anne School for elementary education.^[5] The Campus also contains a Gathering Space and Parish Library, in addition to the parish rectory and administrative offices. Fr. John "Jack" Dewes is the current pastor.

1 History
2 St. Anne School
3 Campus Development Plan
4 Image Gallery
5 External links
6 References

[edit] History

Exterior of the original St. Anne Church, left, in 1910; a neo-Gothic limestone church replaced this wooden structure in the early 20th century.

St. Anne's history dates to the 1860s, when missionary priests celebrated the Mass in private Barrington homes, then a largely rural area. ^[6] The original St. Anne Church was dedicated in 1884, and St. Anne's maintained a resident pastor beginning in 1905.^[7] St. Anne was named for St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary.^[8]

[edit] St. Anne School

In 1927, the Sisters of Mercy founded and staffed the first St. Anne School, one of the earliest parochial schools in Lake County.^[9] Three years later, the School Sisters of St. Francis took charge of the school and still minister in the parish today. The co-educational school numbers approximately 600 students, teaching children from kindergarten through eighth grade.^[10] The U.S. Department of Education has recognized St. Anne's School as a Blue Ribbon School.^[11]

[edit] Campus Development Plan

In 1995, St. Anne approached several design firms regarding a multi-million dollar update and expansion of its undersized facilities. The parish had outgrown its original church building by such a wide margin that some weekly Masses were held in the school gymnasium.^{[citation needed]} After careful consideration, parish leaders chose lead architect RuckPate and YHR Partners to jointly facilitate a comprehensive master plan for the parish expansion.^[12]

YHR and RuckPate designed the new worship space to employ non-traditional, antiphonal seating with a shallow mezzanine to maintain the intimacy of the worship area. The project also included improvements to other parish families on site for fellowship, religious education, parochial education, youth activities, senior activities, outreach ministries, and administration functions.^[13] The parish dedicated the new building on April 30, 2000.^[14] Later that year, the parish received the 2000 Association of Licensed Architects Design Award.^[15] Among numerous other neo-Gothic artworks, the newly constructed Worship Space features twelve near life-size sculptures of saints by Jay Hall Carpenter.^[16]

[edit] Image Gallery

Exterior of the Daily Mass Chapel, with seating for 160.	Interior of the Daily Mass Chapel.	The Chapel Fountain and Entrance to the Gathering and Worship Spaces as seen from the north.	Worship Space entrance.
Entrance from the Gathering Space to the Worship Space.	1300-seat Worship Space, including baptismal font.	East side of the Worship Space, featuring sculptures by Jay Hall Carpenter.	West side of the Worship Space, including lectern.