St. Michael the Archangel Church will be decommissioned during a Farewell Service at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 2nd. Demolition of the Alii Drive Church and tiny exterior rear rectory will begin shortly thereafter and is expected to take two weeks. The adjacent wooden administration building, which opened as a Convent for the Sisters of the Holy Family in 1955, will be razed at a later date. St. Michael the Archangel Church, which was built around 1850 of lava rock, coral and sand, was damaged during the October 15, 2006 earthquakes. After the structural engineering firm of MKM & Associates of Santa Rosa, California found the church unsafe, it was permanently closed. Due to the church’s disintegrating structure, which was caused by past flooding and age, studies found the building could not be effectively repaired and the parish initiated plans to build a new church campus on its roughly three-acre property. The demolition will include locating the remains of Father Joachim Marechal, who oversaw the construction of the original church. He was buried under the church’s altar in 1859. Archeologist Bob Rechtman of Rechtman Consulting has been secured to guide the demolition crew in locating Father Marechal’s remains, and says, “The remains will be put in a safe place until they can be re-interred under the new church.” Plans for a new church that can accommodate up to 650 people with parking, plus a combination community/administration building and a social services outreach building with an upstairs apartment for visiting priests are underway. The church’s adjacent cemetery will not be disturbed. An outdoor area between the buildings for social events will also be created. Some of St. Michael’s original construction materials will be included in the new church’s design, such as the stained glass windows, lava rock, timbers and an 1859 bell from France.