Pax Christi Catholic Community - Eden Prairie

Parish History

Pax Christi Catholic Community grew out of a grass-roots drive in the late 1970's to create a Catholic community in the growing Minneapolis suburbs of West Bloomington and Eden Prairie. Families living in those cities petitioned the Archdiocese and organized the Community. Pax Christi celebrated its first Community liturgy on Sunday, June 21, 1981. At that time, the Community had no permanent home; it celebrated in three different rented spaces, including a warehouse, a Radisson Hotel and the Eden Prairie High School.

Due to the many locations Pax called home, the early years became known as the “Traveling Salvation Show.” But word spread, and the Community grew. In the beginning, Pax Christi had about 150 households, two full-time staff and many volunteers. During the first year, the number of households grew to over 500. In May of 1983, the Community broke ground on its current worship structure. By the time the building was completed in May of 1984, there were over 1,000 households.

The Community continued its explosive growth, numbering over 2,600 households in 1989 by the time the next building addition was completed. That addition consisted of approximately 9,000 square feet of worship, office and other multi-use space and a larger parking lot. And still the Community grew.

Today, there are over four thousand households--approximately 12,000 parishioners, nearly 40 staff members, hundreds of volunteers, and still one priest.

The Early Years
The late 1970's were a time of explosive growth for the southwest Minneapolis suburbs of Eden Prairie and West Bloomington. However, Eden Prairie/West Bloomington did not have its own Catholic community. The Catholic families moving into the area became members of churches in surrounding communities, including Bloomington, Edina, Chanhassen and Glen Lake.

Yet the desire for an Eden Prairie/West Bloomington community began to grow. The desire grew stronger when St. Edward's - in Bloomington - allowed a group of parents in Eden Prairie's Preserve area to conduct home-based religious education. Within a week, the parents had organized a program with 30 teachers serving nearly one hundred students.

Two of the driving families behind the religious education program were the Paulings and the Buckmans. During the Spring of 1979, these two families got together with Fr. Fehn, pastor of St. Edward's, to discuss a new parish. Fr. Fehn agreed to discuss a new parish with the Archdiocesan Vicar General, Msgr. Hayden. When Fr. Fehn had his discussion with Msgr. Hayden in September of 1979, Msgr. Hayden was receptive to the idea. However, Msgr. Hayden made it clear that the new parish would not be initiated by the Archdiocese - the families would need to start the formal process.

By November of 1979, Diana Pauling and Mary Beth Buckman had begun the formal process of petitioning the Archdiocese for a new parish. They presented a viability study to the Archdiocese in March of 1980. In August of that year, the Archdiocese gave its official blessing to the new parish.

Diana and Mary Beth requested that the Archdiocese allow their New Parish Committee to name the parish and be allowed to choose the pastor. While the Archdiocese readily allowed the committee to select their own name, they were hesitant about giving over the pastor selection. However, Fr. Tim Power was ending his term at St. Timothy's in Blaine and was looking for a new community; the New Parish Committee was also looking at him as a candidate. The Archdiocese assigned Fr. Tim to the new parish.

The new, and yet unnamed, Community celebrated its Mass of Consecration on June 21, 1981 in the Radisson South hotel in Bloomington. After the Consecration Mass, the community held a liturgy of celebration at the Eden Prairie High School.

On July 1, 2003, Fr. Doug Dandurand joined Fr. Tim in a year-long transition period that would culminate with Fr. Tim's retirement in June, 2004.

Fr. Doug is installed as pastor of Pax Christi Catholic Community on October 25, 2003.

Twenty-three years after they celebrated their first liturgy, the entire Pax Christi faith community came together to pray as one in a joyous celebration named, Jubilate (u-be-lah-tay). The celebration included 3,500 community members and took place at the Eden Prairie High School Activity Center. Jubilate also signified the close of the year-long pastor transition.

July 1, 2004, Fr. Doug Dandurand fully takes over as pastor of Pax Christi.

June 12, 2005, Fr. Patrick Kennedy, the third pastor in Pax Christi's 23 year history, celebrated his first Mass here.

In 2006, Pax Christi celebrated its 25th Birthday with a year long celebration. “Honor, Embrace, Celebrate” was the theme of many wonderful events which included a Cana Dinner, Art Crawl, spaghetti dinner, pancake feed, Holiday Tea and Boutique and the biggest event of them all, the 25th Birthday Party and Mass celebrated June 21, 2006.
In 2007 and 2008, the community underwent a "Master Planning" process to determine facility and ministry needs to carry Pax Christi into the future. Throughout the process, all were invited give their opinions through meetings, in writing, and on the Pax Christi web site. A Renovation Committee and Feasibility Study have brought us to the conclusion that we will have a Capital Campaign in the Fall of 2009. The major pieces in the plan are: renovating the worship space so that seating is increased, sightlines improved, and accessibility issues are solved; a new main entrance and Gathering Space are added to the worship area; HVAC systems are upgraded and improved; and offices are reconfigured and moved.

It is the community's hope that these changes will lead to being able to carry our vision into the far future.