By Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

The Chapel’s pastor, Mark Cushing, offered further updates on other portions of the former Niagara Catholic High School campus.

When speaking with this NCHS alum, he emphasized, “I come across people like you all the time, who say, ‘Hey, I went to the school.’ You guys have really good memories of being at that school, and so that's important to us. We want to care for the school well, and to only better it.”

NOW IN PLACE:

•HIGH SCHOOL CAFETERIA/SENIOR HALLWAY

The former Niagara Catholic High School cafeteria was converted into a worship center.

In the first phase of renovation, The Chapel converted the former high school cafeteria into a worship center. This is where Sunday service is set.

As reconstruction got underway, staffers found an old stage, which had been walled off. This is now where the church band performs.

The old senior hallway served as the main entryway prior to the new atrium’s opening.

 

•THE ANNEX/FORMER ST. DOMINIC SAVIO

A peek into one of the Chapel Students rooms inside the former St. Dominic Savio building.

Partner space.

••••••••

Half of the former St. Dominic Savio building is being used for The Chapel’s youth programming/classrooms, and half is set aside for community partnerships – nonprofit or otherwise.

“We've got some really cool stuff,” Cushing said. “We redid the whole breezeway there. We changed all the windows, and that looks great.” It’s also been painted.

The children’s and teen areas were rebranded to Chapel Kids (newborn to sixth grade) and Chapel Students (seventh grade through high school), respectively, and debuted in the spring.

“We've changed it around back, so we actually have a back entrance for Wednesday night for our seventh through 12th graders,” Cushing said. “We've repainted and done some redesign of the rooms back there to accommodate our move into Chapel Kids/Chapel Students.

He added, “That’s been growing.”

“It’s nice to reach families. When they come on a Sunday, we can say, ‘Hey, we’ve got something for your kids, as well, during the week.’ That’s really encouraging.”

On the other side, “our community partner side, we call our partner space. We've had some great traction,” Cushing explained. “We have a number of community partners” including People Inc., Habitat for Humanity and Prince of Peace Church Buffalo.

“Pastor Gabriel is the pastor there in Buffalo. They've opened up a second campus, and the second campus is actually at our Niagara Falls campus,” Cushing said. “They meet on Sundays at 1:30, and they're a bilingual service: Spanish and English. They also meet during the week. On Thursday nights, they have Bible studies, and they use one of the partner rooms in the middle school area.”

 

•FOOTBALL FIELD

The Chapel has teamed with local baseball, football, softball and cheerleading squads to enable activities on the grounds.

“It is a great field,” Cushing said.

 

•GARDEN

The community garden.

The Chapel is feeding more than 20 families, in part, through a new garden area just outside the breezeway. Food donations are also collected in the worship center hallway.

FUTURE PHASES:

•MAIN CLASSROOM WING

“The main classroom wing is storage for a number of our campuses right now, and for some ministries that just need some storage space for different materials they have,” Cushing said.

Rehabilitation of this portion of the building would likely be part of a final phase of renovation.

“We’re just praying and exploring, as people want to talk to us about different things, whether that be in housing or whatever that looks like, just kind of different developers that come through and they've got ideas,” Cushing said. “We're listening to things and just seeing what kind of aligns with the mission that we're on, and who we can partner with comfortably with something like that.”

•MAIN HALLWAY/FORMER FRONT OFFICE AND CHAPEL AREA

“That space, we've done some foundational work, which is like put in drywall and sprinklers,” Cushing said. “We were initially thinking we were going to have a chapel space there, but we've probably moved away from that, into potentially partnership with local organizations that might need a space for something. We've looked at opportunities for medical to potentially come in there. We've talked to a number of organizations about that; or it could be education; it could be any number of things that we would partner with somebody.”

•GYMNASIUM

The congregation’s growth has prompted Chapel leadership to consider converting the former gymnasium into a larger worship space.

“We had to shut down in COVID, because we were (renting space inside the Regal Cinema) and the Regal shut down,” Cushing explained. “But coming out of COVID and moving into our space, we've only seen growth. That's been super-encouraging. A lot of churches have struggled, and we've been really blessed with our new facility, just to see the numbers keep going. And not that it's all about numbers – it’s not – but our community of believers is growing as a family, too.”

Right now, “Excitingly, at our campus, we are experiencing a pressure point of just growth,” Cushing said. “Christmas Eve services, we were pretty close to 550 in our facility – that's including kids and adults. We had three services of almost 160 people in each service, adults. And so, we are at the pressure point where we need to really be thinking about our gymnasium space, and what we're going to do in that space.”

However, he emphasized, “There are no definite plans at this point.”

Cushing said, “We're definitely thinking about how we can accommodate more people. … But, “We continue to pray as to how God is going to allow us to use this space for his glory.

“We’re not done doing things. What I mean by that is it’s not just the building. We want to figure out the best way to partner with the community, but also just to reach people with the saving knowledge of Jesus. We’re constantly thinking about things like that. It’s a challenge at times, but it’s great. It’s so rewarding seeing lives changed.”

See also >> Welcome to The Chapel: New atrium opens at former Niagara Catholic site