Following closely in the footsteps of the Houston chapel "Stella Maris" -- and not by coincidence -- St. Dominic's Chapel now has pews as well!
Did I have to purchase them, or did Fr. Zendejas just donate them to the chapel?
Yes.
These 11 foot pews all have kneelers, and are in good shape. A few of them might need a new screw here or there, but all the kneelers work. I had to install one of the kneelers myself.
While the (12) pews were donated, they cost $575 to transport here, and that was with 2 men and 1 boy volunteering for a day's work! U-haul rental, insurance, and lots of gas. We took a PT Cruiser one direction and towed it back with the U-haul, to save on gas. It was a 240 mile trip, one-way.
This expense vastly exceeded the chapel's coffers, so we're in the hole (again!) If anyone wants to contribute to the cause, you can donate by Paypal (which accepts credit cards) using this link:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=LHMPZNHJB6J8QI realize that many (most?) of you don't have any extra money sitting around, especially in this bad economy, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. Perhaps there are a few readers out there who have the means and want to donate to a good cause -- a Traditional Catholic independent chapel standing for the truth, supporting good priests, and actively growing.
If our chapel had a motto, it would be "Stay Catholic, and don't be sectarian!" We are on good terms with anyone and everyone that we can be. We are friendly with Fr. Trinh's group in Lampasas, TX, Fr. Morel's independent chapel in Louisiana, all of Fr. Zendejas' chapels, and we even have friends at the local SSPX chapel. We're looking to help as many people keep the Faith as possible -- our job isn't to find ways to condemn people.
Our chapel is not sitting on a big bank account like Tolkien's Smaug the Dragon sitting on his gold, not doing anything with it. Unlike certain SSPX chapels I know...
Anyhow, we're about to test these pews out in a real Mass setting in about an hour and a half... Mass is at 2:30!