Dedicated Gifts - a clarification

The press has been showing interest in the dedicated sponsorship of our new building, but there seems to have been a bit of confusion that needs clearing up.

One astute observer was concerned that our showers were over-priced. (Others have shown concern that our beds will be too cheap!) We would like to take the chance to reassure everyone by explaining that the sponsorship prices are nominal costs. The prices are high because the sponsorship costs cover hidden expenses such as archaeology, planning permission, architect's fees and the large costs of building on a constricted site with difficult access. The new bedrooms for the community are being built to simple, modern standards, without ostentation or luxury. We also took several tenders for the work and have opted for the cheapest one.

For an easy comparison, a nearby Oxford college recently built a new accommodation block for 70 students. It also includes a new library and other common facilities for them to use. It cost £35 million in total. That works out as £500,000 per student.

By contrast, our new building, which also includes a new library and rooms for parishioners, works out at about half as much per room on average. And then we are only asking for £70,000 in sponsorship per room — an absolute bargain!

Please also remember that the new bedrooms are a necessity — we have young men interested in joining our community and nowhere to put them! Without new rooms, we would have to turn away potential vocations for several decades.

New Building: Week 23 - New Doorway

“And the six hundred men stood before the door, appointed with their arms.”

—Judges 18:15–17

Well, not quite six hundred men, but there was some pretty hefty machinery around last week. (Apologies for the noise in church.) This is the new door from the first floor of the Parish centre (soon to be New Library) to the coretto, the old organ loft above the shrine of St Thérèse of Lisieux in church.

The coretto is currently accessed by climbing a spiral staircase in a very confined space — some of you will have noticed the doorway next to St Thérèse. We use the coretto for storage of things like crib figures and the booklets for Mass and Vespers. With a door from the new library, access will be even easier in future, and we will also be able to store larger items there. The spiral staircase, which is a very fine cast-iron piece, will be moved into the new library to give access to the gallery running around the edge of the room. The old door and partition surrounding it in the church can then be taken out, which will give us some space to do nice things to the shrine of St Thérèse.

Here you can see the architect's drawing of the library with the staircase in place.

And here you can see the doorway growing:

“And he brought me in to the door of the court: and I saw, and behold a hole in the wall. And he said to me: Son of man, dig in the wall. And when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.”

—Ezekiel 8:6–9

...and of course, finishing off with this week's view from the top of the building — of Boar's Hill!

New Building: Weeks 21 and 22 - On the third floor

Let's go on another tour of the building site. If you can imagine going up the old staircase to the fire escape on the upper floor of the Parish centre, then you would see this view, standing in the doorway:

Going up that temporary staircase made of scaffolding (careful to avoid the big steel girder which by now is holding up some part of the building) we emerge on the newly ceiling-ed second floor. (We've just come out of the dark hole in the wall on the far right. We had to duck.)

So that's where another two bedrooms will soon be. Going up further, we come to the third floor:

That's as high as things got in Week 21. On the other parts of the site, we can see a new steel lintel across the old window (soon to be French windows) of the ground floor going in. The old one wouldn't have been able to take the weight of the library!

Work has also continued on the new lift shaft. This is the ground floor seen from the first floor.

Into Week 22 now, and the outer casing of the lift shaft is halfway up the ground floor:

And to finish off, some views from inside the third floor bedroom:

...and a bonus one from Pierre Victoire on Little Clarendon Street! (Notice how well the new building blends in.)

New Building: Week 20 - Wood and Concrete

Work on the second floor of the new accommodation block is progressing smoothly, and a concrete foundation for the lift shaft has been made too. That should make getting to the second floor a bit easier!

In brick news, another 1,115 were sponsored last weekend. Thank you!

Dedicated Gifts: Sponsor a bedroom

For the past few weeks, we have been giving our Mass-goers a chance to sponsor individual items to make up the £50,000 needed to build the new Parish office. We have had a very generous response, so we are now ready to announce that we have reached that target and are ready to move on to the next room.

The next room is the larger first floor bedroom, or Nido 1. (The word nido comes from the Italian for nest.) You can read more about why we are building these rooms on our New Accommodation page, but the short answer is that the house is full!

Here is the current view of Nido 1:

Below is a preview of the poster that will be put up on the church noticeboard this weekend. (Click it to see the full size version.) It is based on the architect's plans for the new building, and gives you an idea of what the new rooms will look like.

The total we will need to raise before moving on to the next room is £70,000. (We haven't included the bricks on this poster — read about brick sponsorship here.)

Of course, you can always sponsor a bedroom as a whole, for £70,000.

To sponsor an item on the poster, either e-mail us, campaign@oxfordoratory.org.uk, contact us by phone or letter, or speak to one of the Fathers in person.

Remember, all benefactors have Mass said for them weekly, and are prayed for daily by the Oratorian community. You can also choose to keep your donation anonymous, if you prefer, or make it on behalf of a friend or family member.

Here is a complete price list for the room:

Walls: 1000 concrete blocks	£20 each
Ceiling	£7000
Basin	£600
Mirror	£150
Taps	£60
Bathroom extractor fan	£50
Towel rail	£200
Toilet	£700
Roll holder	£20
Shower tray	£2000
Shower	£300
400 bathroom tiles	£8 each
Bathroom cupboard	£200
Bathroom cupboard doors	£100
Bathroom cupboard shelves	£80
Drains and plumbing	£3000
Door	£600
Door handle	£20
Bookshelves	£300
Desk	£100
Electrical wiring	£1000
Internet Connection	£800
Telephone line	£800
8 sockets	£40 each
1 pot of white paint	£25 each
4 pots of coloured paint	£25 each
Chair	£80
Bed	£200
Window	£600
Bedroom light	£60
Bedroom light switch	£40
Bathroom light	£60
Bathroom light switch	£40
Smoke Alarm	£100
Door	£850
Lock	£35
Radiator	£300
Window	£1000
Wardrobe	£200
Wardrobe doors	£100
Wardrobe shelves	£80
Carpet	£2000
20 Floorboards	£90 each

Bricks!

Last weekend, some of our volunteers started selling bricks after Masses.

They have already sold 671!

The bricks cost £1 each. If you missed out last weekend, don't worry — the stall will be outside for the next nine weeks.

The building work on the new accommodation, Parish centre and library will use 17,000 bricks in total.

Thank you to our volunteers, and to everyone who bought a brick!

New Building: Week 19 - Second floor

Some views of the second floor of the new accommodation block. Further down you can see a hole being cut into the roof of the old Parish centre, now that the heigh of the new building is starting to overtake the old. (That's where the staircase to this floor will emerge.)

So once this floor is done, there's only one more to go!