Some will trace St. John's back to being the first church in Lockport. It has moved about a bit over more than a hundred years and the modernistic building today on Chestnut and McColllum Streets certainly is a contrast to the old Lockport neighborhood it is in. The main church floor seats more than 700 and a large hall below it is the center of a host of daily auxiliary activities.
St. John's has evolved in the past ten years into either the first or
second-most active church of any denomination in Lockport. Of the five Catholic
churches in Lockport it has long been the biggest in terms of membership. And
although the membership continues to inch up in total, the real growth here has been in active
membership and community outreach.
The church appears to have a paid staff of five or six to supplement the two full-time priests in residence here. This core leadership coordinates an active volunteer staff that we estimate into the hundreds.
Activities out of Chestnut Street include common church functions such as daily Mass (a total of 17 such services regularly scheduled weekly, plus numerous wedding and funeral Masses), specialty worship services and sacramental activities , religious instruction for children and adults, numerous clubs and specialty groups meeting daily, a parish library building that loans out all types of religious media, and off-campus ministry to those at home, in hospital, or in institutional care.
What seems to have changed the most with this church community in the past few years is the
"Community Outreach." It's
extensive and growing. The old school building is the base for a food pantry and a
clothing center for Lockport poor. Much of the work here is done by the church's St.
Vincent DePaul Society and the clients in a month probably extend over a thousand persons.
There are sleeping quarters here for youth who may visit from out of town for
summer community repair projects. Some religious instruction goes on in the former
school classrooms. The building, which was rented out to the Lockport Public School
District as an "alternative school" up until a few years ago is now fully
utilizied for parish outreach functions. At the rear of the church rectory is a
retail religious book and gift store open limited hours, but most days.