The congregation at St. Clare of Assissi Roman Catholic Church is counting the days to Christmas - and the opening of its permanent home.
Barring any delays passing city inspections, the Surprise church should be serving thousands of worshippers this week from a new building at 17111 W. Bell Road, just west of Cotton Lane, Surprise.
The $10 million church will be the spiritual home to about 2,200 registered families and 7,000 members in the church's broad boundaries, which are 211th Avenue to the west and north, Grand Avenue on the east and Waddell Road to the south.
The church was scheduled to open Sunday but failed to pass an emergency light inspection. Church leaders expect that glitch to be fixed in the next couple of days.
The Rev. Hans Ruygt, who has been with the parish since 2002, said the church has been meeting in various temporary sites until a modular building was put on the Bell Road property in the summer of 2001.
Since then the church has grown beyond that small building, where it was a common sight to see hundreds of church members standing outside the building on Sundays, listening to Mass via speakers.
"On Easter Sundays, there were 485 people inside the building and another 1,000 outside," Ruygt said.
The new building will seat about 2,000, though it will initially seat 800 in temporary seating.
"There may be a lot of people standing, still," Ruygt said. "Typically, when you open a new church, members who were never able to find a seat come back from other churches. And we might get a lot of members from Sun City, El Mirage, Sun City West and other areas."
Surprise, he said, will provide the most membership.
"There is a lot of undeveloped land in north Surprise" Ruygt said. "And there are always more Catholics coming to the area. We are always registering new families. It seems that I am always writing letters of welcome, sometimes as many as 20 or 30 a month."
Church members are thrilled with the new facility.
Janet Murphy of Surprise said she has been a member since the parish first formed and met originally in Sun Village, where she lives.
She was excited to be able to make decisions on various esthetic options in the new church as a member of the sacred arts committee.
"We helped decide the colors, the artist that is making the stained glass and the kind of tile and pews," Murphy said.
Barbara Stabasefski, who also lives in Sun Village, said the new church is beautiful and huge, adding previously she would arrive at church an hour early to be sure she was able to get a seat.
Mass will be celebrated weekdays at 8 a.m., Saturdays at 4 p.m., and Sunday at 7, 9, 11 a.m. and at 5 p.m.
If the church is given  the OK to open, Christmas Eve Mass will be celebrated at 4, 6, 8 and 11 p.m. Caroling will begin at 10:30 a.m. Christmas Mass will be celebrated at 7, 9 and 11 a.m.
Rugyt said the church offers programs and education for children and adults, as well as prayer and study groups.
"But the biggest ministry we do is outreach to the surrounding community with the St. Vincent de Paul Society" Ruygt said. "We serve a lot of poor, provide financial assistance for utilities and rent, for people going through crisis moments."
Ruygt said though the population of the Valley is about 14 percent Catholic, the church believes in serving all.
"We certainly want to support and serve the whole community as Catholics, not just serve all of the Catholics," he said. "We feel the need to spread the message of Jesus and His life for everyone, and churches should be open for everyone."