GROVE CITY - The Church of Beloved Disciple is taking a bit of 1926 to 2006.

Eight stained glass panels from the block church built 79 years ago will be installed into the walls of a new church the parish is building. The new church may open as soon as the Easter season.

The Roman Catholic church, now on Broad Street in the borough, broke ground in May on a new house of worship a mile from the center of town on Route 208 in Pine Township.

The project is at a standstill, however, while the contractor waits for steel to be delivered.

The stained glass windows and possibly the Stations of the Cross will be making the trip across town when the parishioners move, keeping reminders of their history in the transition to the new place.

The transition has been hard for some members of the parish to accept, the Rev. Edward Zeitler, pastor, said, but many, including him, are excited for a new worship space.

"The current church is just not meeting our needs," he said.

A survey showed three wishes of the parish are: to have a youth pastor, to have air conditioning, and to make the building handicap accessible. The first two goals were accomplished quickly. The third was a little more difficult.

Architects Crowner and King of Erie were hired to do some renovations that would make the church more accessible, but their study said it would cost the church more to renovate than build.

After renovations, Zeitler said, the church wouldn't look like the place parishioners were used to because the walls would be brought down.

There were other issues that led to the decision to build a new church. Parishioners crowd the church during

services

, especially the 10:30 a.m. Sunday Mass. To accommodate the overflow, a closed- circuit TV has been set up with additional chairs in the basement of the church.

And the membership keeps growing. With 650 families already on the rolls, Zeitler said a new family registers about every week. He expects that when the church is closer to Prime Outlets, more people in town to shop will come to Mass.

"I get a lot of calls on Saturday from people staying in the hotels while they shop asking for the Mass schedule," he said.

Zeitler said the kitchen facilities aren't up to par, the restrooms are difficult for the elderly to get to and the parking lot is inadequate.

But even with all the symptoms of a growing parish in a fixed space, some members needed a little extra convincing that a new church was needed. So Zeitler invited a professor from Gannon University in Erie to speak to the congregation about the reasons the new church was needed.

The Knights of Columbus donated 10 acres of land to Beloved Disciple, and the church bought three more at 1310 S. Center St.

Piggy-backing on a Diocese of Erie campaign, the church banked money for the $2.2 million project that will include a church seating 450, an educational building and an office.

A transportation committee looked at the issues of moving out of the center of town and is working on arrangements to get students from Grove City College to the church. Other than the students, Zeitler said not too many walk to church.

In May, the church broke ground, excavating was done and the waiting began.

Zeitler said he expected a good summer season for construction, but a lack of steel industrywide has delayed the project from moving forward. The contractor told him once the steel arrives, the church will go up quickly.

In the meantime, the building committee is making decisions on the interior of the church. It has picked a salmon-brown color brick, brown carpet, and a medium-oak stain for the wood.

The ceiling in the church will be mostly exposed wood. Pitched like a tent, the ceiling will have trusses running lengthwise and two skylights.

Entering from the parking lot facing South Center Street, parishioners will walk through a gathering vestibule, past a small chapel used for daily Mass and around the baptismal font before entering the main part of the church.

The educational building and social hall will be built in two separate phases. Zeitler said the education building is a high priority because the church has more than 300 members in its religious education program.

Dianne Schleigh, religious education coordinator, said the new education building will offer more classrooms, community space and gathering space. She said it may also include space for a youth leader's office.

Currently, the religious education is split across two days because only seven classrooms are available, she said.

The classrooms will be multi-purpose to allow community use during the week. A library has been designated for the church's book and video collection, she said.

Th

e property and buildings on Broad Street will then be sold. Zeitler said he hopes the YMCA or a small community church can use the building.