| We, the Catholic parish community of
Immaculate Heart of Mary, in the legacy of Mary, our model in
faith, affirm our commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the
Bread of Life. We acclaim the spiritual vitality of a
diverse parish through spiritual development and education, and
offer sanctuary and service to those in need. |
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Immaculate Heart of Mary’s legacy as a
Marian daughter of St. Joseph’s Parish begins in 1955, as the uranium boom of
the new atomic age brought an influx of geological and mining related personnel
and their families to what had been a relatively quiet town of 18,000. On twelve
acres of farmland just north of the city, 165 families, led by Fr. Emil Eckert,
founded the new parish of Immaculate Heart of Mary. Until a church structure
could be completed for those families cut off from St. Joseph’s, the new
congregation gathered in the Cooper Theatre, affectionately know as St.
Cooper’s. Six months after the founding of the church, mass was celebrated in
the new cinderblock structure. A small frame house served as the rectory, and
with the addition of Rosary Hall, adjacent to the rectory, the parish had a tiny
office building.
Under a second pastor, Fr. Joseph
Kane, parishioners contributed toward construction of a school for both
elementary and junior high students. Immaculate Heart of Mary School opened in
1964. During that same period, a parishioner donated a building on Wellington
Avenue to serve as a convent.
As the parish continued to grow,
parishioners dreamed of having a new church to replace their first simple
structure. Another energy boom in the late 1970s led diocesan officials to
consider making Grand Junction the center for a new diocese. But the oil shale
bust of the late 1980s postponed plans for a diocese, as well as construction
plans for a new church.
With the parish growing again, plans
for a new church resumed. A donation of twenty-three acres, and an offer from
land-locked St. Mary’s Hospital to purchase their present buildings, has led
to the endeavor of moving the entire parish facility from their current location
to a new site two miles away. The project, which is currently underway, includes
combining the two campuses of Holy Family School.
This brief history has
focused on
external structures, which are only a part of the story, a framework to the life
of the parish. The parish’s community of faith has grown from 165 families in
1955 to 1,458 in 2000. While their new facility and plans for a new school are
tremendous achievements, the congregation is more proud of their living
stones—a cadre of well-trained lay ministers and volunteers who make IHM a
truly living parish.
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