Jacksonville, Fla. – Plans are underway to build a new church for Saint John Paul II Mission located in the Nocatee community in St. Johns County. Bishop Felipe J. Estévez established the mission* under the administration of Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish in Ponte Vedra Beach in 2012.

The new church will be located on 35 acres of land that was donated to the Diocese of St. Augustine by the Davis family on Valley Ridge Blvd., west of the Kelly Pointe subdivision in Nocatee.

The project will begin with an 11,000 square-foot church hall with seating for about 350 people at an estimated cost of $3 million. The diocese has contracted with Kasper Architecture for the project. Groundbreaking will occur in early spring, February 2015, with an estimated completion date of December 2015.

Msgr. Daniel B. Logan celebrated the first Mass of the mission on July 9, 2012 at St. Francis in the Field Episcopal Church on Palm Valley Road. Since then, and until the new church is completed, Mass is available on Saturdays at 6 p.m. at St. Francis. There are nearly 180 parishioners that attend on a regular basis.

“Father Michael Ellis, pastor of St. Francis Church, has been very open and welcoming to the Catholic community,” said Msgr. Logan in 2012. “We are most grateful to our Episcopal brothers and sisters for allowing us to use their worship space.”

Msgr. Logan retired in 2013, and Bishop Estévez appointed Msgr. Keith Brennan pastor of Our Lady Star of the Sea on July 1, 2013. The priest-in-charge of the new mission is Father Edward Shaner, who is also a parochial vicar of Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish.

* A mission is a congregation too small or too new to be established as a separate parish. They are usually administered to by a priest or priests of a nearby parish as designated by the diocesan bishop.