Fr. William McCandless, O.S.B
Pastor from 1994-2003
In 1996 Deacon Don Bourgeois was assigned to St. Jane de Chantal Parish and because he lives North of Bush he was assigned to be the Manager of St. Michael’s and remains till this day.
Mass in the dome at St. Michael’s was at 12:00 noon back then, until one morning in about July 1999 when going to set up for Mass he found a lot of the insulation from ceiling had fallen in front of the altar. On looking up there was a very large pocket of water hanging down over the altar from the rain the night before. We celebrated Mass praying the angels would hold up the pocket of water till Mass was finished.
Then that afternoon the parishioners came and helped move everything from the dome to the hall where the church is today.
The Architect and Structural Engineer from the Archdiocese came and after inspecting the dome condemned it as being unsafe, so it was torn down. The dome that was built with no nails, no screws and no bolts, that was to be able to withstand winds of 200 mph collapsed when barely being touched by a backhoe.
St. Michael's in the Hall
When we first moved into the Hall there was no carpet, just dirty painted concrete, no PA system and the walls where dirty and needed painting with spider webs everywhere and many of the florescent lighting needed repair . The above photo is after these were completed.
Irvin Templet, Deacon Don’s Godfather donated the Stations of the Cross. He also built and donated the four longer pews, and screens with kneelers for the first pews. Together he and Deacon Don built the Cross the Resurrected Christ that is in the sanctuary.
Later the back porch area of the former Hall was turned into classrooms for CCD. A fire alarm system was installed throughout the building. A storage building was built across the road for the grass cutting equipment and storage with an office.
On July 30, 2004 George Oliver 93 years old and Ola Mae 78 years old had their marriage validated by Deacon Don with Raymond and Roberta Cook as their witneses. They well may be the oldest couple to have their marriage blessed in St. Jane de Chantal Parish.