Divine Grace Parish-Holy Redeemer Church to Hold Welcome Home Masses to Celebrate Completion of Renovation Project

Soon, the congregation of Divine Grace Parish-Holy Redeemer Church, 415 Fourth St., will return to their home—a home with some major changes and upgrades.

For the past few months worship has been held in the Catholic Center, but that’s about to change on June 29 when the congregation will finally get to see the full results of the extensive makeover that began on April 1.

“I hope that the folks will be very pleased when they see it. While the church is the same everything is better,” said Deacon Don Pepe who is Director of facilities for the parish. “The church hadn’t been touched for 50 years and it was due for renovation. I am happy we were able to get it done.”

Deacon Don Pepe said Special celebration Masses will occur all weekend starting on June 29 at 5 p.m. and on June 30 at 9 and 11 a.m.

“These will be the welcome home masses. For the first time the church will be completely reopened.”

Parishioners will notice updates including: refurbishing of pews, a flooring update, new lighting, HVAC, painting, new confessionals, and renovated restrooms.

“There were a lot of projects going on at one time and there were sometimes 11 different contractors working at the same time,” said Deacon Don Pepe “Four of those were local including painting, flooring, bathrooms, and new construction of confessionals. Having that work done by local contractors was important to us.”

He said the parish worked with borough officials to make sure everything was compliant with code and that the church is now completely ADA compliant as well.

The project included some standout bells and whistles with an actual upgrade to the bell system making it completely digital, a state-of-the-art lighting system, and a loop for hearing aids.

“We’ve done so many little things … the details,” Deacon Don Pepe said. “A lot of little things that are going to make this special.”

There was even a little repurposing of stained glass that will be an added cosmetic detail.

“I believe Ellwood City as a whole is going to be very pleased with the changes. And that is going to be satisfying to me.”