Vision for St. Jude Parish

As we look to the future of our parish community, we envision responding to the growing needs of our parishioners in the many and varied ministries of worship, faith formation, pastoral care, community service, and religious education. To realize this vision, our facilities must be able to meet the expanding needs of these ministries, now and for future generations. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to upgrade our parish campus with a new church, more and larger meeting and educational facilities, and expanded parking. This upgraded campus, blessed with the power of the Holy Spirit, will provide our thriving and growing Catholic community with the facilities and resources to meet our ministerial needs.

Serving Our Growing Community

Our Christian ministries must be expanded to meet the diverse needs of our growing community:  The population of Londonderry and the surrounding communities has increased steadily and rapidly over the last two decades. This growth has resulted in a consistent increase in the number of Catholic families joining our parish. Consequently, the resources of our various ministries at St. Jude have become strained, as we strive to meet the needs of the parish and the expanding community at large. As just one example, our current facility lacks sufficient classroom space to meet the needs of the students enrolled in our religious education program. Building a new church and meeting facility, and modifying our existing structure, will enable our many ministries to properly serve our community, now and into the future. Our new parish campus will include an increase in worship and classroom space, a larger food pantry, space for adult religious education/RCIA, and additional room for youth ministry, ministries for seniors, the parish nurse, and potentially a Kindergarten and preschool program, just to name a few.


The issue of inadequate worship space to serve the growing population is compounded by the national and local trend in declining vocations:  Church space needs to keep pace with our growing community so new families joining our parish can be accommodated within our current Mass schedule. As the population in southern New Hampshire grows, the workload increases on the limited number of priests available to serve the Catholic community. Our pastor, Father Bob, already provides round-the-clock coverage to many individuals and families for their various spiritual needs. With his full schedule, and the unavailability of other priests to help with the workload, celebrating additional weekend Masses to accommodate St. Jude’s growing community of worshippers would not be physically possible.


Available land in North Londonderry adequately sized for a new church and associated facilities is quickly disappearing as the population grows:  The rapid residential growth experienced in northern Londonderry over the last several years has greatly reduced the number of building lots large enough to accommodate a church. In anticipation, the parish has recently negotiated an option to purchase 25 acres of land immediately behind our church. If purchased, this land, when combined with our current property, will allow us to expand at our existing location to meet the needs of our parish community well into the foreseeable future.

Only with everyone’s spiritual and financial support will the parish be able to acquire the land and build the facilities to support the vision of providing the many ministries and services to our community in the future. Funding would include purchasing the abutting 25-acre parcel, engineering design, and construction of the new worship space and parish facilities. Based on the cost of the land and recently constructed churches in southern New Hampshire, the Strategic Planning Committee estimates the total cost of the project to be four to five million dollars. In order to meet Diocesan requirements, we must collect a minimum of half the construction cost before we can break ground on this project. If the total project cost is not raised, the balance can be provided in the form of a favorable interest rate loan from the Diocese. Our goal is to raise this money during one fundraising campaign, with pledges payable over several years.


A brief note about St. Jude Parish:

St. Jude Parish has been providing spiritual enrichment to the faithful since 1953. As the surrounding population grew, so did the parish membership, which resulted in an expansion of the church in 1986 to its present size. Since that expansion, the parish size has continued to grow rapidly. We currently have nearly 1,700 registered families in our parish, with over 1,400 children in our religious education database, of which 900 are currently active in the program. Baptisms have grown from 3 in 1953 to 96 per year by 1999. This exponential growth of St. Jude’s parish family has resulted in our current efforts to assess the feasibility of upgrading our parish campus, in order to meet our needs now and into the foreseeable future. Your support is essential and your valuable input is appreciated.

God Bless you.

St. Jude Strategic Planning Committee

Jim Finch, Chair Ron Bechard Russ Lagueux Joe Paradis Ben Parker Angela Poitras Owen Walton

CLICK HERE for our vision letter and survey.