St. Matthew Parish aims “to educate and form our children and all members of our parish to know, love, and serve God and community.” Since the church was built and classes were first held in 1962, St. Matthew has flourished and become a k-8 school with high standards. The parish aims to cultivate a strong sense of community while nourishing spiritual practice.

Originally part of Holy Cross Church, St. Matthew Parish came into existence in 1960 when Father John Walter McGinn supervised a fundraiser to build a school and convent on Mrs. Bridget O’Connor’s ten-acre family farm located in southwest Champaign. Father James Martin was appointed the first pastor, and the sisters of St. Francis staffed the church. The sisters of St. Francis have since left the parish, and a number of head pastors have served over the past decades. The current pastor of St. Matthew is Monsignor Mark J. Merdian. He has been in this role since 2003 and serves as the sixth pastor of the parish.

In 1964, St. Matthew School was formed with eight grades and by June 1985, St. Matthew had established itself as a separate parish from Holy Cross Church. In the beginning St. Matthew School had an enrollment of 238 students. In 1966, an addition to the school expanded the facility to 16 classrooms, a multipurpose room, a gymnasium, a teachers’ lounge, and school office. A Parish Rectory was also built that year. In 1985, the school expanded with a new library and additional classroom space. In 1995, the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George came to the parish, established a convent and began teaching at the school. In November 2001, a Parish Building Committee was selected to plan for parish/school facilities, including a new parish center and school addition. In July 2002, an architect was selected and plans for a new Parish Center and Performing Arts/Athletic Facility were completed.

In September 2003, St. Matthew Parish’s 25th Anniversary began to raise funds needed for the new Parish Center, Performing Arts/Athletic Facility and Diocesan Capital Campaign, all of which have since been successfully completed. The school has grown to provide outstanding religious-based education from kindergarten through eighth grade. After many years of planning and fundraising, the parish has grown to be a thriving faith community, made up of more than 1,600 families. Currently, the school has more than 415 students.

In terms of technology, in 1990 the school had eight Apple IIGS computers. These were used very little (if at all) by students, but were experimented with by the limited staff. Eventually the number of IIGS computers increased to 13 and students split time between the library and the computers. With help from fundraising, the school set up a desktop computer lab in the mid-1990s that added 24 more PowerMac computers and a few PCs. Since that time, the school and the church have incorporated more and more laptops and computers. They have added printers, scanners, and educational software, such as an online grading database and various computer-instructed resources for their curriculum. They have a website with a wealth of information, such as a directory, teacher web pages, and various events and updates from both the school and the church. The website is currently in a state of transition to using WordPress layout features. In the past two years, St. Matthew has added Promethean boards and iPads to support instruction, and has plans for every classroom to be equipped with such tools. As of last year, St. Matthew has utilized the social networking site Facebook to promote various events of interest. There continues to be plans for technology use at St. Matthew. Overall, the community promotes technology usage in their education and their community events, and has plans to keep up with the rapid changes in technology.

Mass Times

This CU wiki entry began as a UIUC research project.  For more on that see Study of UC2B Anchor Institutions' Technology Use