Our Lady of Grace Church
Our Lady of Grace Parish began February 17, 1946, when Reverend Louis W. Forrey offered the first Mass for the parish on the stage at the Edina Theater at 50th and France. The new parish was comprised of 165 families, coming mostly from St. Thomas the Apostle and Christ the King parishes. The community continued to celebrate Mass in the theater for three years while the first part of the building complex was constructed. On May 29, 1949, Mass was first celebrated in the new building, which served as a chapel, school, rectory, and convent.
Our Lady of Grace continued to grow until Sunday Masses overflowed and the school was overcrowded. As is typical of the "let's get it done" attitude of the Our Lady of Grace community, a new church, school addition, and convent were built in 1957. Growth has continued in our community, and in 1984, after a feasibility study, work was initiated to bring about our beautiful current worship space. On June 22, 1986, we celebrated our first Mass in the new building, and on September 18, 1988, we completed our new worship space with the dedication of an Austin pipe organ, one of the finest instruments of its kind in the world.
Our Lady of Grace completed a new addition to the school in 1999 and continued its growth with the addition of a new library annex, updated office space in the school, and an elevator.
As part of a successful "Honoring Our Past, Building Our Future Capital Campaign" in 2009, the parish was able to update our worship spaces, Commons, and dining room, as well as install a new sound system, sprinkler system, and security system. In addition, we have reduced our debt and strengthened our school through additions to our school endowment fund. In 2010, we were able to install a geo-thermal heating and cooling system to our campus.
January, 2012 marked the merger of the St. Louis Park parish of Most Holy Trinity into the church of Our Lady of Grace.
In November, 2018, our parish began gathering input from the OLG community for the “Advancing Our Mission” Campaign. Building the infrastructure to more effectively advance our mission requires a shared vision and deep input from the community. Our community identified the following objectives for this campaign:
expand ministries and enhance fellowship and community;
serve the whole child-mind, body and soul;
engage new and young families;
ensure our priests’ well-being and connectedness to the parish; and
ensure the long-term viability of our facilities.
From this vision, the “Advancing Our Mission” campaign culminated with a new cafeteria, kitchen, activity center, preschool, middle school, school offices and priests’ residence, as well as investing in deferred maintenance. In September, 2022, OLG opened these wonderful additions to our community.
Our Lady of Grace today is a community of more than 3,300 registered families and individuals. Our pastor is Fr. Kevin Finnegan, and our Parochial Vicar is Fr. John Utecht. We have over 800 students in our school (Preschool - 8th Grade) and 450 students in our Faith Formation program, which includes Sunday School through Confirmation.
We celebrate and welcome all into the Our Lady of Grace family. Please join us!
