From Center Court to Christ the Cornerstone
- Guest Contributor
- 10 minutes ago
- 7 min read
After decades of celebrating Mass in a school gymnasium, the faithful of St. Clare of Assisi Parish in Edwards broke ground on a church that reflects the community God has long been building in the Vail Valley.
By Karin Gamba
Sixty-one years ago, Tom and Betty Newpower stood before God in a Minnesota church and exchanged their wedding vows.
On a Friday morning, July 24, the couple, now in their 80s, celebrated that anniversary in a very different setting — a school gymnasium complete with basketball hoops and championship banners hanging on the wall.
“We’ve been coming to this gym for Mass for 25 years,” Tom said, gesturing to the school gymnasium that has served as St. Clare’s sanctuary and nave since the parish was established in 2000. “This has always been our place.”
Just like everyone gathered in the “church-nasium,” the Newpowers were excited to be in attendance for Mass and the official groundbreaking of their new church, celebrated and presided over by Archbishop James Golka.
For Tom and Betty, the groundbreaking was more than the start of a construction project. It marked the fulfillment of a dream they had carried alongside hundreds of other parishioners for more than two decades: a church to call its own.
“Finally,” Betty said with a smile. “Today is that day.”
Friday’s groundbreaking marked the beginning of construction on the new St. Clare of Assisi Church in Edwards, one of two churches being built through a $23 million capital campaign to serve the rapidly expanding Catholic communities of the Vail Valley.
In May, parishioners celebrated the groundbreaking for a new St. Mary Church in Gypsum. Together, the dual groundbreakings mark the culmination of a vision first articulated decades ago by early project champions, then-Archbishop J. Francis Stafford and the late Father Edward Poehlmann, a former pastor of the multiple parish community.
(Photos by Chris Kendig, courtesy of St. Clare Parish)
The Beautiful Church
With clergy, religious sisters, seminarians and parishioners assembled in the gymnasium for Mass, Archbishop Golka reminded those gathered that while a church building is sacred, a church isn’t complete unless the faithful are also transformed by its construction.
“You are the beautiful church,” he proclaimed to the congregation.
Archbishop Golka explained that the cornerstone placed into the earth points to a much deeper reality. Just as stone and wood are made holy for God’s glory, the Lord desires to sanctify his people even more.
“We build churches because we have an inner desire to know God better. As much as we desire to know God and commune with him, God’s desire to commune with us is even greater,” he said.
As the new building emerges over the coming months, he invited everyone in attendance to ongoing spiritual transformation.
“God has begun a great work here,” said the archbishop. “I encourage you to receive the blessings and let God change you.”
He concluded by inviting all in attendance to pray a simple prayer for transformation: “God, you have permission to come into my life and make me new today. God, you’re not done with me yet.”
From Gymnasium to Sanctuary
Following Mass, the assembled, led by Archbishop Golka, Father José Maria Quera, the parish’s pastor, and clergy from across the Western Slope, processed from the familiar surroundings of the school gymnasium to the church’s future location.
“We are so happy for this day,” said parishioner Alejandra Jaques de Ruera, attending with her young niece, Alexa. “It is very exciting. We have waited a long time.”
For little Alexa, however, the excitement was more immediate.
“I’m excited about the food,” she admitted with a big grin, eagerly anticipating the tacos and ice cream waiting at the parish celebration after the ceremony.
Gathered around a large wooden cross marking the future location of the altar, Archbishop Golka prayed the Rite of Blessing for the Site of a New Church. Carrying holy water, he walked the perimeter of the future church, sprinkling the ground, preparing it spiritually for the physical structure soon to come.
(Photos by Chris Kendig, courtesy of St. Clare Parish)
Christ the Cornerstone
Shortly thereafter, he blessed the cornerstone — a large rectangular stone that will become part of the church’s foundation — a visible reminder that Christ alone is the Church’s “sure and firm foundation.”
“Look with favor upon your sons and daughters who have gathered here with joy to begin work on a new church. Grant that they may grow into a temple of your glory, until shaped by your grace, they are assembled by your hand in the heavenly city through Christ our Lord,” the archbishop prayed.
After sprinkling and incensing the cornerstone, Archbishop Golka smiled as he looked at the heavy stone on the table before him.
“The ritual says I’m supposed to pick up this rock and put it in place. I can’t do that,” he said to chuckles from the crowd. “So, we’re going to need all of you to help.”
One Community, One Mission
“If there is one word that summarizes today, it is gratitude,” said Father Quera, thanking the generations of parishioners whose prayers, sacrifices, volunteer hours and generosity made the day possible. “This church is not just built with bricks and cement. It is built with all our hearts, with all our souls.”
Those “living stones,” as he described them, have been quietly building the parish for years.
Long before there was a cornerstone to bless, there were parishioners like Jesús Espinoza.
For years, nearly every Sunday, Espinoza has arrived early to help transform the school gymnasium into a place fit for worship: arranging chairs, setting out missals and welcoming parishioners at the door.
“I’ve lived here 28 years,” he said. “For a long time, we heard they were going to build the church, and it didn’t happen. I thought, ‘It’s going to be the same thing this time.’ I’m glad I was wrong!”
When the capital campaign finally began, he decided to help with that, too.
Now, he laughs about one thing he won’t miss — building a church every week!
“Every Sunday we have to put out the chairs, and after Mass we have to put them all away again,” he said. “Now we won’t have to.”
For Alba Padilla, a leader in the capital campaign, the journey has been equally personal.
“God is not limited by buildings,” she said. “Wherever there is faith, any place can become sacred — even a gym.”
The gymnasium at St. Clare’s became sacred because God’s people gathered there. The new church will be sacred for the same reason.
“This day is a dream come true,” she said.
Looking Toward the Next Generation
Padilla also spoke with gratitude about the friendships that have formed during the four-year capital campaign, bringing together English- and Spanish-speaking Catholics around a common mission.
“The Anglo community has a big heart,” she said. “They made this dream happen. I am so grateful for everyone.”
That spirit of shared sacrifice was also reflected by Gloria and Frank Kalman, longtime parishioners who split their time between Houston, Texas and Colorado’s Vail Valley.
In the valley for 30 years, the couple at first worshipped wherever Mass was available — St. Mary in Eagle, St. Patrick in Minturn, the Beaver Creek Chapel — before making St. Clare their parish home.
“This is our community,” Gloria explained simply.
As plans and the capital campaign took shape, the couple was excited to be part of the vision for the new church in Edwards.
“We just really wanted to do whatever we could to make sure everyone had a church,” Gloria said. “There are so many people who work so hard but can’t contribute as much financially.”
Andrew Neitenbach of Horizon West Builders, the firm constructing St. Clare Church, sees that same reality from another perspective.
Before construction even begins, he reminds his crews that every donation represents a sacrifice.
“Every hundred dollars matters,” he said. “It came from someone, and it wasn’t easy for them to give.
“After the church is built, when you sit in a pew, the altar is placed, the crucifix is hung, and there’s no one else around,” he said, “it kind of gives you the chills knowing generations of families will come here to pray.”
For Father Jonathan Francois, the parish’s new parochial vicar of just a few weeks, the project has come full circle. He first heard about the plans for the new church when he was a seminarian on the Western Slope five years ago.
More important than the buildings themselves, he believes the campaign has already accomplished something just as lasting.
“The campaign itself brought everyone together,” he said. “It wasn’t just about raising money. It united people around a common mission.”
He believes that unity will continue long after the construction is complete.
“It’s beautiful to witness, to see it materialize, and as a new priest, to be part of that journey,” he reflected.
For Tom and Betty, the future is measured less in bricks and mortar than in family milestones.
They imagine grandchildren walking down the aisle, great-grandchildren brought to the baptismal font, First Holy Communions, Confirmations and the countless moments of grace that mark a Catholic life.
With humor, they even joked that perhaps one day their own funeral Masses would be celebrated at the new St. Clare of Assisi Church.
“We’ll go all the way through,” Tom said with a laugh, referring to his lifelong Catholic faith.
As the ceremony concluded, parishioners made their way to a lunch feast on the school lawn featuring tacos with all the trimmings, and yes, ice cream for Alexa.
Before departing, Archbishop Golka offered one final blessing — not for the groundbreaking this time, but for Tom and Betty on the occasion of their 61st wedding anniversary.
It was a fitting end to a remarkable morning: Holy Mass had been celebrated; ground had been broken; the cornerstone had been blessed.
Yet perhaps the deepest foundation had been quietly taking shape for years — in faithful marriages like Tom and Betty’s, in volunteers who set out chairs every Sunday, in families who sacrificed to give what they could, and in a diverse parish that has become one community united in Christ Jesus.
The building that will rise in Edwards is, in many ways, simply the visible expression of what God has long been building in his people in the Vail Valley.
