News

Campaign News

SEPTEMBER 10TH, 2023

Today at Immaculate Conception and St. Wenceslaus, we announce our capital campaign Welcoming Our Future in Faith. This $3.5 million campaign will improve our church and offices to ensure that we are accessible and welcoming to all. After more than 100 years of service, it is time to improve the entryway and church offices at Immaculate Conception to make our buildings inviting, efficient, and effective in serving our mission.

For almost two years, our parish and finance councils have come together to assess how we can steward our resources by addressing urgent infrastructure needs at the rectory and improving accessibility at Immaculate Conception and our shared offices. We also made great efforts to gather input and feedback from parishioners in both faith communities.

Earlier this year, a feasibility study was conducted to receive the thoughts and opinions of our parishioners about our future. Considering our options and the positive results of the study, and through much prayer and deliberation, Immaculate Conception and St. Wenceslaus embarked on our Welcoming Our Future in Faith Campaign.

The capital campaign looks toward the bright future of Immaculate Conception and St. Wenceslaus. With a successful campaign we will be able to:

  • Increase accessibility for our growing communities
  • Expand our functional office space to accommodate our current staff and meet future needs
  • Improve the efficiency of our buildings
  • Reflect our welcoming spirit
  • Preserve our historic buildings
  • Pass on the blessings we have received so that future generations can grow in their faith

Our capital campaign seeks your support in three ways:

  1. PRAY for the success of our campaign.
  2. PLEDGE a gift to our campaign.
  3. PARTICIPATE as a phone caller.

In the coming weeks, you will be learning more about Welcoming Our Future in Faith. Please keep your minds, hearts, and ears open to the message of our capital campaign.

Questions about the Welcoming Our Future in Faith campaign or want to volunteer as a phone caller? Please contact Maria Cavin at the church office: 319.362.7181 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

What is the Campaign?

"Welcoming Our Future in Faith" Campaign

The Welcoming Our Future in Faith campaign will meet the needs of Immaculate Conception and St. Wenceslaus by increasing accessibility for our growing communities, expanding our functional office space, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of our buildings, and making our space more welcoming. The campaign will support our needs through two main phases, focusing on the Immaculate Conception entryway, and renovating the rectory to serve as church offices for Immaculate Conception and St. Wenceslaus priests and staff. We will accomplish these goals while leveraging our existing spaces. Keeping within our tradition of thoughtful and careful stewardship of our resources, these projects will update the critical infrastructure in these spaces and adapt our campus to the needs of today and tomorrow.  

Our Vision

Immaculate Conception and St. Wenceslaus are at the heart of our communities and of our parishioners’ lives. Our most meaningful moments take place within our churches - we enter our children into the Church through baptism, we purify our sins through confession and our children make their First Holy Communion, we enter marriage in the eyes of God, and we lay our loved ones to rest.

We also grow together in community through our relationships with Jesus Christ and one another. We encounter our faith alongside our brothers and sisters. We walk our journey of faith together and provide for the needs of our neighbors. Our churches and facilities provide the environment to deepen our commitment to the Lord, the Church, and our communities.

 

Immaculate Conception and St. Wenceslaus have adapted to meet our communities’ needs over the past 150 years. Our community has maintained and enhanced our buildings as needed. As we look to the next 150 years, we are charged with being good stewards of our resources. Let us pray that we may have the vision of generations past to provide for those that will follow us.

Immaculate Conception and St. Wenceslaus strive to be beacons of faith in the lives of our parishioners and within the greater Cedar Rapids community. Our communities are growing, our worship spaces reflect our vitality, and we continue to look forward to new ways we can serve as the body of Christ.

  

 As we seek to fulfill our mission, we have identified several priorities as a community that we have an     opportunity to progress:

  • Reflect our welcoming spirit with spaces that are accessible to all our brothers and sisters
  • Preserve and maintain our historic buildings
  • Ensure our spaces are functional in service of current and future church needs that further our mission
  • Pass on the blessings we have received so that our churches and buildings will be used by future generations
  • Maintain our buildings as symbols of faith in our role as Catholic presences in downtown Cedar Rapids

 

 

 

Renderings

Our Projects

RECONFIGURE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION ENTRYWAY - $2.5 MILLION

We will welcome our communities to the Immaculate Conception and the shared church offices with a wider, welcoming, and accessible entry. Access from the entrance to the church, elevators, bathrooms, and staff offices will enhance our ability to serve all members of our community. We will also:

  • Renovate entryway bathrooms and bridal suites: With our growing churches, these spaces will better serve the community with increased accessibility and more efficient and functional infrastructure.
  • Connect church offices to Immaculate Conception: The new entryway and offices will be connected so that the church offices and staff will be accessible to all parishioners, a current challenge at both existing church offices.


CONVERT THE RECTORY TO OFFICES - $1 MILLION

The growth of our churches has increased the need for additional and functional office spaces. We will transform the space we currently have at the rectory and transform it into offices so we can:

  • Create office space to meet our current and future needs: The current offices in the rectory and the offices at St. Wenceslaus are not large enough to accommodate our full staff. Locating our staff at a single, accessible location will improve our ability to serve all parishioners and facilitate our engagement with the community.
  • Update key systems in the rectory: The electrical, plumbing, and HVAC systems will be repaired and updated to modern safety standards. Notably, the tube wiring will be updated, the leaking plumbing and boiler systems will be repaired, and the improperly directed airflows will be refit, providing necessary updates to critical infrastructure.
  • Photos of damage, disrepair, and electrical wiring components that need to be addressed to create a safe, efficient, and functional office for our churches are included at right.
  • Address the liability of previous additions: Rooms that were previously added to the exterior of the rectory will be removed, and the historic profile will be restored. Repairing and maintaining these rooms is not cost-effective.

 

Renderings

 

   

 

Ways to Participate

 

Make an Online Pledge to the "Welcoming Our Future in Faith" Capital Campaign

 

Our Progress

 

Prayer

Campaign Prayer

Heavenly Father,
You are the source of every blessing,
 and we thank You for all the ways You reveal Your love to us.
In Your love for us,
You call us to labor with You to build Your Kingdom,
in our lives, and in our churches of Immaculate Conception and St. Wenceslaus.

We humbly ask You to guide us in our work with You,
and in this campaign,
to provide for our needs and to stir our hearts to imitate You in Your generosity.
Through the generous sharing of ourselves now,
may You bless us with all we need to continue building Your Kingdom here in Cedar Rapids.

We ask this through the intercession of St. Wenceslaus, the Blessed Virgin Mary,
and in the name of Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord.
Amen.