St. Peter Parish, American Fork, bursts at the seams

Intermountain Catholic

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Father James E. Blaine, pastor of St. Peter Parish, American Fork, displays the proposed plans for phase I of a parish expansion project. A religious education center with classrooms and office space that will ease the crunch on Sunday mornings and other religious education times, is long overdue, said Fr. Blaine.IC photo by Barbara S. Lee

AMERICAN FORK — The Diocese of Salt Lake City is nothing if not growing, and the people of St. Peter Parish, American Fork, are ready to see their parish complex expand, said Pastor Father James E. Blaine.

"I’ve been here since 1996, and we were getting crowded then," Fr. Blaine said in a Nov. 1 interview with the Intermountain Catholic. "Now, when we have religious education classes, there are children all over the place. We split up the social hall and have children meeting in the hallways. We need to look seriously at expansion."

Fr. Blaine has already talked with a church architect, and has had plans drawn up for a three-phase building project that will eventually see a new church, a new rectory, and plenty of classroom and meeting space.

"Looking at the parish plant right now, our biggest necessity is classroom space," Fr. Blaine said. "Building that and adding more parking behind the current church will help prepare us for phase II, a new church."

Fr. Blaine said his weekend Masses (Saturday at 5:30, and Sunday mornings at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.) are full already, and he is looking a burgeoning new housing development going in at Eagle Mountain, 10 miles to the west of American Fork. "I think the diocese plans to open a station there eventually, but American Fork itself is growing."

The St. Peter Parish Rectory is woefully lacking in storage space, so a new rectory is in the building plans. "I don’t know yet whether the rectory will be Phase III or Phase II-and-a-half," he said.

St. Peter Parish has 320 registered families, and Fr. Blaine estimates from 75-80 Hispanic families who have not registered yet. "When we ask the Hispanic families specifically to register, they will," he said. "This parish is very diverse. We have, in addition to a growing Hispanic population, small communities of Tongans and Filipinos. Our religious education classes, which are held between Masses on Sundays, also draw people from the Provo area."

The parish is in the process of organizing English-As-A Second-Language (ESL) classes.

In addition to Fr. Blaine’s parish responsibilities, he’s also the Catholic chaplain for the Utah State Prison in Bluffdale. Consequently, his week days are split. He’s at the prison eight hours a day on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and spends evenings and Mondays, Saturdays and Sundays in the parish. Friday is his day off, but speaking of days off sometimes makes him laugh.

Evenings find all the current meeting spaces filled by Knights of Columbus, the parish Council of Catholic Women, and Boy Scout and Girl Scout groups with which Fr. Blaine is very active. A leader for years of Boy Scout troops, Fr. Blaine’s house is full of toy tigers, bear cubs, and wolves, all gifts from scouts, their parents, and friends.

He said he has gotten remarkable support from St. Peter parishioners for the building project. "They see the need, and they’re very willing to commit to this project. They see the growth in the area."

Although Fr. Blaine never thinks of himself as a "building priest," he has taken the helm of building projects while on previous assignments in Cedar City and Roosevelt.

After consultation, the parish building committee and the parish finance committee agreed with Fr. Blaine that they should plan for a new church that seats from 600-650, nearly twice what the current church seats. The new church plans indicate it will be located where the current church and the Dowling Center are now.

"We’re blessed that we already own a pretty big piece of land that will allow us to expand," Fr. Blaine said. "Over the years people have approached us trying to purchase that land, but the diocese and the parish have held on to it. It’s really a God-send now."

Looking back, Fr. Blaine said he’s seen big housing developments, factory outlet stores, and now a huge convention center going into American Fork. "It’s all happened in the last 12 years. And it’s forced us to develop a concrete building plan for the future."

He estimates the cost of the education center will be about $1.5 million, with all three phases coming in at about $10 million. Parish committees are looking at capital campaigns, but the decision has not yet been made to either hire a professional fund raiser or try to accomplish that feat by themselves.

"I think the campaign would be more personal if we did it ourselves," said Fr. Blaine. "But it’s also a lot of work. Our parish is very generous, and we already have Diocesan Development Drive rebate funds going into our building fund. I believe if people know where the money is going, they will respond very well to our requests."

Fr. Blaine looks out the back door of St. Peter Church in American Fork. Where a large field stands now, he sees a religious education center and parish offices. And that’s just the beginning.