St. Elizabeth ann seton // Fort Wayne, IN
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is a young and growing parish located in southwest Fort Wayne. The original church was built in 1989 to accommodate the growing faith community that had been gathering at a local elementary school for Sunday services. The pastor requested a transformation occur connecting the church to the beauty and tradition of the Church while making visible heavenly realities - no small task. As a part of this transformation, it was also important to provide a new edifice for the church - one that stood tall serving as an invitation to the wider community to come and pray. To do so, this project was broken up into two phases. During Phase 1, the nave and sanctuary of the church underwent an interior beautification that included significant modifications to the walls and structural floor of the sanctuary as well as new artwork, stained glass windows made by a local studio, new lighting, and new marble furnishings. Phase 2 includes the erection of a new main entrance and bell tower, a new baptismal font, and improvements to the adoration chapel.
General Contractor: Schenkel Construction, Inc.
Liturgical furnishings fabricated by: Henninger’s Inc.
Murals & Stained Glass provided by: William Lupkin Designs Inc.
Terrazzo: Dancer
*This project was designed while working at Design Collaborative.
“I have received much positive feedback from the first phase of renovations. For so many of us, it was hard to imagine what it would look like - and feel like - in the church once renovations were complete. I have heard time and again that people are surprised and impressed with the changes, and I keep hearing the word “beautiful.” Just this past week, a fellow priest said it is “like heaven.” That is exactly the purpose of those renovations: to help us visualize what we are told about the Mass and about the Domus Dei (“House of God”) - that it is a taste of heaven on earth, the meeting place between present and eternity. I pray that it continues to foster our sense of the sacred and our ability to encounter God in prayer. Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us.”
Father Terry Coonan, Pastor