The present IHM Church was built in 1953-54 as a chapel to serve the Serangoon 5th and 6th mile and Paya Lebar areas. It was never meant to be a permanent structure and hence in 1971 when Fr Louis Louiseau was the Parish Priest here, plans were drawn up and submitted to the authorities for a 2-storey church replete with a modern bell tower. In fact some $40,000 were collected as church building funds. However, the Archdiocesan Finance Commission finally turned down the project.
In 1992 wings were added to the church by Fr. P. Barthoulot which helped to increase the seating capacity by another 50%. This was temporary relief for the 10.30am Masses on Sundays.
As the parish population increased over the decades to more than 6,000 now, there is a pressing need to build a new church building to cater for the growing Mass attendance and the many parish organisations meeting in the church every evening. The closure of Our Lady of Lourdes School and the shifting of St. Joseph Convent to Sengkang also saw our catechism classes looking for alternative locations for more than 600 students.
Under such circumstances and with the mandate given by 400 parishioners at the Parish Assembly in March 1999, a Building Committee was formed and consultants appointed to start planning for the new church. There was general consensus that IHM should remain a "kampong" church. The sentiments were against a multi-storey church building, especially with the main church upstairs. It was certainly a daunting task to put this vision into our mission.
We then asked ourselves whether to develop part of the lot or to go whole hog for an integrated development. After much soul searching, the Building Committee decided to give it our best shot and develop fully to cater for all our immediate and future needs. Hence our new church will consist of three buildings: the main church building with choir loft and total seating capacity of more than 1,400 persons, and the 3-storey Pastoral Centre housing the cafeteria, bookshop, meeting rooms, and AV-rooms. The 2-storey Presbytery is tucked in between the church and Pastoral Centre. This will house the offices and residence for the Priests and an adoration room.
Soil investigations showed that good soil is only found some 40m deep despite the church is sitting on a "highland." Piling cost would be prohibitive. The structural engineers came up with a floating cellular raft design. We took the opportunity to place the car park into this semi-basement at no additional cost. Recent URA regulations prohibit columbariam to adopt an open design above ground. The option was to build a windowless columbarium building above-ground or to site it in the basement. We decided to place it directly under the church
Besides the main church development, the Building Committee also had to make two other considerations. One is to develop the school hall into a temporary church which is now named the IHM Chapel. This chapel will remain for IHM use after the main church is completed. The other development we had to make is the Parish Hall at 46 Kovan Road. Both this house and the present church are so old and deteriorated that it has been rather difficult to maintain it, upgrade it, nor refurbish it sufficiently. Wood rot, leaking roofs, rusted posts, spalling concrete, mildew and constant power tripping has been bugging our past Parish Priest and Fr James Yeo. Hence we are presently constructing a 3-storey house for our parish use in due course.
Our estimated construction costs are $1 million for the Parish House at Kovan Road, $300,000 for the IHM Chapel, and $10 million for the main church. Our proposals to the Archdiocesan Finance Commission were all approved. A Fund Raising Committee was formed to look into fund raising efforts.
In 1992 wings were added to the church by Fr. P. Barthoulot which helped to increase the seating capacity by another 50%. This was temporary relief for the 10.30am Masses on Sundays.
As the parish population increased over the decades to more than 6,000 now, there is a pressing need to build a new church building to cater for the growing Mass attendance and the many parish organisations meeting in the church every evening. The closure of Our Lady of Lourdes School and the shifting of St. Joseph Convent to Sengkang also saw our catechism classes looking for alternative locations for more than 600 students.
Under such circumstances and with the mandate given by 400 parishioners at the Parish Assembly in March 1999, a Building Committee was formed and consultants appointed to start planning for the new church. There was general consensus that IHM should remain a "kampong" church. The sentiments were against a multi-storey church building, especially with the main church upstairs. It was certainly a daunting task to put this vision into our mission.
We then asked ourselves whether to develop part of the lot or to go whole hog for an integrated development. After much soul searching, the Building Committee decided to give it our best shot and develop fully to cater for all our immediate and future needs. Hence our new church will consist of three buildings: the main church building with choir loft and total seating capacity of more than 1,400 persons, and the 3-storey Pastoral Centre housing the cafeteria, bookshop, meeting rooms, and AV-rooms. The 2-storey Presbytery is tucked in between the church and Pastoral Centre. This will house the offices and residence for the Priests and an adoration room.
Soil investigations showed that good soil is only found some 40m deep despite the church is sitting on a "highland." Piling cost would be prohibitive. The structural engineers came up with a floating cellular raft design. We took the opportunity to place the car park into this semi-basement at no additional cost. Recent URA regulations prohibit columbariam to adopt an open design above ground. The option was to build a windowless columbarium building above-ground or to site it in the basement. We decided to place it directly under the church
Besides the main church development, the Building Committee also had to make two other considerations. One is to develop the school hall into a temporary church which is now named the IHM Chapel. This chapel will remain for IHM use after the main church is completed. The other development we had to make is the Parish Hall at 46 Kovan Road. Both this house and the present church are so old and deteriorated that it has been rather difficult to maintain it, upgrade it, nor refurbish it sufficiently. Wood rot, leaking roofs, rusted posts, spalling concrete, mildew and constant power tripping has been bugging our past Parish Priest and Fr James Yeo. Hence we are presently constructing a 3-storey house for our parish use in due course.
Our estimated construction costs are $1 million for the Parish House at Kovan Road, $300,000 for the IHM Chapel, and $10 million for the main church. Our proposals to the Archdiocesan Finance Commission were all approved. A Fund Raising Committee was formed to look into fund raising efforts.
Contributed by:Christian Kwan