O.C. Congregation’s 40 Years of Wandering Are Over

Bishop of Orange Tod D. Brown is scheduled to be in Costa Mesa today to sprinkle holy water on a brick building, anoint its walls with oil and accept the keys to its bronze double doors. It will be a moment 48 years in the making.

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church on Baker Street will then become home to a parish that has been meeting in temporary quarters since Dwight D. Eisenhower was president.

“It’s a very big event,” head pastor Father Hildebrand Garceau said of the dedication ceremony scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. “This is a defining moment in the history of the parish.”

The parish was officially formed in 1960, but its members had been meeting at the Baker Street building since 1958.

The search for permanent quarters began as soon as St. John the Baptist was formed, but raising the necessary funds proved daunting.

By 2002, after four decades of sputtering starts, the parish had grown to more than 3,000 families, including Anglos, Latinos and Vietnamese.

The members continued contributing funds for a permanent church, but were seemingly no closer to having a new home.

With the need for new quarters growing but resources limited, parish and diocesan officials opted for a more modest goal. Instead of constructing a building somewhere else, they would renovate their “temporary” church for about a third of the cost.

Four years and $3 million later, Hildebrand said, “it looks like a completely new church.”

From the outside, the building is the same modest brick structure the parish has occupied for decades, but inside the transformation is remarkable.

Friday night, when the facilities were unveiled to parishioners, many gasped at the sight.

“I can’t stop crying,” said Laurie Blasing, 38, after Hildebrand pulled open a white curtain to reveal the new interior.

The 700-plus crowd gave a standing ovation.

The parishioners had been conducting Mass in another building during months of renovation.

“This is an awakening,” said Blasing, who has attended St. John the Baptist for 15 years. “I feel overwhelmed, renewed and overjoyed.”

Around her, the refinished wooden pews matched the arched beams and pillars rising beside them.

A custom-designed baptismal font blended with the white and coral marble altar.

And at the front of the sanctuary, a massive hand-sculpted relief depicted St. John the Baptist pointing to Jesus as the “Lamb of God.”

It was enough to awe 69-year-old Earl Williams, a St. John parishioner for a quarter century.

“I feel like now this is really a church,” Williams said.