St. Louis Mission finds new home after three-year search
By Laura Ieraci
As published in Horizons, May 7, 2017
 
Caption: St. Louis Byzantine Catholic Mission will have a new worship space June 29 on the grounds of the former campus of Notre Dame College. (Photo: Bob Hertenstein)
 
ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Members of St. Louis Byzantine Catholic Mission can now breathe easy.
Just two months before the mission was to vacate its worship space at Blessed John XXIII Center, parishioners found a new home on the former campus of Notre Dame College.
After a harrowing three-year search, the mission agreed to a one-year lease with the School Sisters of Notre Dame April 25, though the lease was yet to be signed at press time.
“I’m feeling relieved and I’m looking forward to six weeks of hard labor,” said parishioner Bob Hertenstein, who joined the mission 12 years ago and served on the search team.
He said the mission expects to hold the first Divine Liturgy at its new location, situated just three miles from its current site, on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, June 29.
Founded in 1984, St. Louis Mission has been renting space in the basement of Blessed John XXIII Center for more than a decade. During this time, they refashioned the large windowless room into a worship space, installing an icon screen, icons and pews.
The center is a complex of buildings, owned by the Archdiocese of St. Louis. It serves multiple functions and houses St. Mark Roman Catholic Parish.
However, in early 2014, archdiocesan officials announced the complex would be sold due to prohibitive operating costs and asked all tenants to vacate by June 30, 2017.
Hertenstein said he and his fellow parishioners began considering their options right away. The options included building their own church, purchasing a church from the Roman Catholic archdiocese or another Christian denomination, sharing a church with another congregation, purchasing or renting a commercial building, or purchasing a house to convert into a worship space.
Once they set aside building their own church, they began looking for properties. The search was more demanding than they had imagined. They considered 70 to 80 properties online and visited about 20 of them, Hertenstein said. Affordable properties were either located in unsafe neighborhoods or snatched up by quick buyers, he said.
Though parishioners “learned a lot about real estate,” the search process was “frustrating” and parishioners experienced “a lot of disappointment,” he said.
Hertenstein said he still regrets having missed the purchase of a Serbian Orthodox church. Though out of the mission’s means with its original price tag of $600,000, the church later sold for $200,000, only to be torn down.       
With time and options running out, a parishioner emailed a number of religious congregations last month, explaining the mission’s need, and the School Sisters of Notre Dame responded.
The sisters offered to rent the mission three former classrooms, all in succession, on the first floor of their former college’s “G” building. One room will be converted into a worship space; the middle room will be used as a sacristy; the third room will function as a fellowship hall, said Hertenstein.
He pointed out the “built-in” advantages of the new space, such as counters in what will be the fellowship room, a sink in the eventual sacristy, and windows in what will be the church. The altar will face east and the entire space is wheelchair accessible, he added.
The monthly rent is $1,000, $700 more than their current rent. Hertenstein said the mission can manage the increase though it will leave little financial wiggle room. 
The mission expects to have access to the new space as of May 15, so as to begin preparing it for the move.
However, parishioners intend to keep looking for a property that will give the community more stability, said Hertenstein. “We want a home. We don’t want to be stuck in classrooms forever,” he said.
As of June 29, St. Louis Mission will gather for worship at 320 East Ripa Ave., building “G,” first floor. The mission celebrates Divine Liturgy on Saturdays at 6:30 p.m.
For more information, go to www.byzcath.org/stlouis.