The Work of Our Hands: Abbey Woodworking Capital Project

The Work of Our Hands

The Work of Our Hands

ABBEY WOODWORKING CAPITAL PROJECT

Stewardship Simplicity Integrity

The Work of Our Hands Saint John’s has the rare opportunity to combine the prestige of Abbey Woodworking with the worldrenowned Pasi Organ Builders, Inc. This unique collaboration promises to raise the profile of skilled craftsmanship at Saint John’s to a new level of distinction.

Then they are truly monks when they live by the work of their hands.

–Rule of Saint Benedict

Following 165 years of woodworking, Saint John’s has outgrown its current, aging woodworking facilities, while also needing to add accommodations for the Pasi Organ operations. We envision the new twostory, 27,000-square-foot building will centralize woodworking operations for greater efficiency while also creating a suitable space to begin our new endeavor in pipe organ building. The woodworking building will include all needed woodworking equipment, state-of-the-art safety enhancements for our work team, and—very exciting—the addition of instruction space and work areas for students, volunteers, and guest artists. The organ building program will create unique learning opportunities for a whole new generation of potential craftsmen. This new building and its scope of work will continue to shape our Saint John’s community as we share our Benedictine culture that extends beyond the simple function of well-made objects.

Sitting on the largest pipe (32’ long) installed in the abbey’s Holtcamp/Pasi organ, and fabricated in the Abbey Woodshop.

PLEASE DONATE

TODAY CONTACT:

Abbey Development • PO Box 2015 • Collegeville, MN 56321 OR

saintjohnsabbey.org/work-of-our-hands

The amazing part of this endeavor is that students and others can be apprentices. The program offers career opportunities in organ building, tuning, and maintenance as well as woodworking.

At a cost of about $12.3 million, the Abbey Woodshop/Pasi Organ Project is a significant capital undertaking. We face an urgent timeline to allow for the relocation of the Pasi studio, accompanied by Martin Pasi’s invaluable guidance, and we need to secure funding to begin construction by late spring 2022.

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2019).

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Your support will make a crucial difference to this project.

Please give this opportunity your serious consideration.

Excitement for the project has grown considerably since the project was announced a year ago. We have raised over $10 million toward the $12.3 million project. This is an incredible result for just one year of fundraising. Based upon the success of the fundraising to date, the monastic community will be voting this May to proceed on preparing the construction site this summer for a hoped-for groundbreaking later this summer or early fall.

Your generous contributions can help us meet the final funding goal for this project.

The Work of Our Hands

Saint John’s Abbey • Abbey Development Office Box 2015 • Collegeville MN 56321-2015 320.363.2085 • saintjohnsabbey.org • abbeydev@csbsju.edu saintjohnsabbey.org/work-of-our-hands sjawood.org • sjawood@csbsju.edu Produced using ecologically responsible paper and vegetable based inks.