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Final payment made on
€1.2m church 19.09.08
THE PARISH priest of
Newtowncunningham Fr. Kevin O’Doherty has praised
the faith and dedication of his parishioners when he
announced recently that final loan repayments had
been made on their landmark new Church of All
Saints.
The famous chapel designed and based on St Peter’s
Barque, was completed in 1999 at a cost of
€1,200,000 but that has now been paid for thanks to
a variety of fund-raising activities, interest-free
loans and a pledge system.
“We built the church on faith, the faith of the
people and that faith has been rewarded. The people
have been very good, they embraced the pledge system
that enabled them to contribute a sum of their own
choosing to be paid off over a period of time and
this system formed the bulk of the funds.”
Fr. O’Doherty said that those involved in the pledge
system, either as contributors or organisers,
deserved special congratulations and appreciation.” |
However the pledge
system was not the only means of fund raising for a
project that kicked off with very little money in
the kitty.
“We began with little funds because we had just paid
for renovations on Killea Hall costing €55,000, the
roof of Killea Church was renewed for €30,000 and
the Columban Hall was renovated for €72,000. |
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These were substantial
outlays at the time.”
Fr. O’Doherty also explained that normally the rule
of thumb for building a church is that a third of
the cost should be already collected before the work
begins.
However, he said, costs were beginning to rise and
consequently it was deemed desirable to begin
immediately.
“This was made possible for two reasons, first the
promise of the pledge based on the trustworthiness
of the people and secondly the interest-free loans
of €490,000 which gave us a base from which to
begin.”
Those loans were secured from diocesan and parish
sources and from parishioners and non-parishioners,
representing substantial savings to the parish
according to Fr O’Doherty.
And then of course there were fund-raisers, so many
that it would be easy to omit one or two the PP
admits if he were to try and name them all.
“There were so many hard working people who ran fund
raisers, so many generous donations and
contributions including ones from other
denominations and from outside the community and we
are very appreciative for their generous help and
support.”
Fr O’Doherty also thanked the architect, builders
and artists who have enhanced the church so
beautifully over the years and Bishop Boyce and
Monsignor Dan Carr for their help and support for
the project.
The Newtown PP added that with final payments now
made, attention will be turned towards the
renovation of the Killea Church.
“Parishioners in that end of the parish have been
very patient and we are hoping to finance these
renovations to a significant degree by the sale of
Killea parish hall. This would be in conjunction
with the present dual pledge which will now focus
exclusively on Killea,” he said. (Inishowen
Independent) |
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