St. Anne Catholic Community is a Roman Catholic parish of the Archdiocese of Chicago located in suburban Barrington, Illinois approximately thirty-two miles northwest of Chicago. Originally dedicated in 1884, St. Anne is the only Catholic parish in the Barrington area. In 2000, the church was expanded significantly to accommodate its 3,700+ registered parishioner families; at the time, its Campus Development Plan was the largest in the modern history of the Archdiocese. Rev. Bernie Pietrzak is the current pastor, replacing Rev. John "Jack" Dewes, who served the community through 2009. History Early history St. Anne's history dates to the 1860s, when missionary priests celebrated the Mass in private Barrington homes, then a largely rural area. The original St. Anne Church was dedicated in 1884, and St. Anne's maintained a resident pastor beginning in 1905. St. Anne was named for St. Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary. In or around 1949, St. Anne dedicated a new church at the southeast corner of Franklin and Ela Streets. The church served as the main worship space for the parish until the construction of the current St. Anne campus. Campus Development Plan In 1995, St. Anne approached several design firms regarding a multimillion-dollar update and expansion of its undersized facilities. The parish had outgrown its original church building by such a wide margin that some weekly Masses were held in the school gymnasium. After careful consideration, parish leaders chose lead architect RuckPate and YHR Partners to jointly facilitate a comprehensive master plan for the parish expansion. YHR and RuckPate designed the new worship space to employ non-traditional, antiphonal seating with a shallow mezzanine to maintain the intimacy of the worship area. The project also included improvements to other parish families on site for fellowship, religious education, parochial education, youth activities, senior activities, outreach ministries, and administration functions. The parish dedicated the new building on April 30, 2000. Later that year, the parish received the 2000 Association of Licensed Architects Design Award. Among numerous other neo-Gothic artworks, the newly constructed Worship Space features twelve near life-size sculptures of saints by Jay Hall Carpenter. Features In 2000, the newly expanded church received the Association of Licensed Architects Award of Excellence in Architecture for its limestone and neo-Gothic design. The current St. Anne campus features a 1300-seat, two-story Worship Space, a 160-seat chapel (site of the church dedicated in 1949), and the St. Anne School for elementary