A 21st Century Vision at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Dexter

With their parishioners in mind and a vision for the future, St. Joseph Catholic Church Dexter has added on to its country campus on Mast Road. This has helped the church and its offerings in so many different ways.

With the church celebrating the addition to its country campus, the Sun Times News followed up with Father Brendan Walsh to learn more.

“This new building is part of the parish’s 21st century vision in response to our growing Catholic Community and the recognition that the village buildings, namely the old school and old convent, were aging out as safe and productive spaces for the many parish activities and events,” Fr. Walsh said.

For those who don’t know, St. Joseph Church in Dexter has two campuses: country and village. The village campus is located at the corner of Dover and Fourth Streets in the city of Dexter; it’s where Catholics of the Dexter community have worshiped for over 140 years. The country church, the newer one of the two being built 17 years ago, is just down the road in Webster Township.

To the country campus, Walsh said they’ve added on an office wing, a hall and kitchen, and classrooms for religious education of children, and several meeting rooms for adult faith formation. Like he said before, this was done in response to the aging of the buildings on the village campus. This update makes the offices at the country campus handicapped friendly, i.e. no stairs.

To be able to have the parish activities and their Sunday worship on one campus is helpful, Walsh said. It should in time increase participation, he believes, while adding, and they now have a better location for coffee and donuts after Sunday mass.

They can also offer sports activities, such as basketball, volleyball and pickleball, as well as being able to have meals after a funeral, where the families and friends can go from mass to lunch all in one building. And with this, they can also offer community meals, such as Sunday morning meals after mass.

Even with all of this at the country campus, the village campus still plays an important part for the church. At the village campus they continue to have daily mass Monday through Friday, and continue to have funerals and weddings in the village church. The pastor also continues to live on the village campus in the parsonage.

Photo 1: St. Joseph Catholic Church Dexter. Photo by Lonnie Huhman

Photo 2: A look at part of the addition to the church. Photo by Lonnie Huhman