St. Joseph's Church (www.stjosephwestorange.com)

We've heard many times that the church is its people, not a building. Saint Joseph's is a beautiful church. Its beauty is the beauty of faith in the lives of dedicated parishioners gathering in a warm and inviting place.

It is a great blessing that we worship in one of the most distinctively charming churches in the Archdiocese of Newark. Worship, however, is only one of the reasons for which we gather as a parish. We also gather to learn, to build community, and to serve. For these purposes we also need a place to gather. In previous years we used the parish hall as a gathering place. Even then it was too small, and now that it is dedicated to the use of our successful and expanded co-sponsored school, it is no longer available. We've wanted our parish to grow and it has. Presently the largest open space we have for gathering is the school cafeteria, which is smaller than the parish hall and poorly accessible because of stairs. Our parish life is expanding; the physical plant needs to expand along with it so that we can gather as we ought: to learn, to build community and to serve.