About St. Timothy Catholic Church
Welcome to St. Timothy Parish. In his Second Letter to Timothy, St. Paul writes: “The Spirit God has given us is no cowardly spirit, but one that makes us strong, loving and wise” (1:7).
St Timothy is warm loving Roman Catholic Christian community with over 40 active ministries. St. Timothy is a stewardship parish and it is funded through the Time, Talent and Treasure of over 1700 families.
History
In the early eighties, Saint Paul Catholic Church in the Carrollwood area experienced a tremendous growth. Many of the new families lived in the northern part of the parish. The pastor and parish council of Saint Paul decided to determine how much interest there would be in starting a new parish to the north.
From September 11, 1983, priests from Saint Paul celebrated Mass at various locations in the northern part of its parish. At first, Mass was celebrated at Claywell Elementary School in Northdale. In the Spring of 1984, Mass was moved to Citrus Park Elementary School, but due to a low attendance at that location, in April 1984, the Mass was moved back to Claywell. There, attendance increased steadily and a second Mass was added each Sunday. In September of 1984, due to the growing size of the worshipping community, the Masses were moved to the brand-new Gaither High School. The rapid growth of the community and its self-identity determined the need for a new parish in the Northdale area, Thus began Saint Timothy’s history.
Bishop Larkin appointed Father Dennis Hughes to begin the process of establishing first a mission and then an independent parish in the Northdale area. After being appointed on January 6, 1985, Father Dennis celebrated Mass for the first time with the community a week later at Gaither. After living and working out of neighboring parishes for six weeks, Father Dennis rented a house in the area of Country Place and set it up as the rectory, office and site for daily Mass.
Father Dennis invited the community to assist in naming the new mission and several names were suggested. The recommended names were forwarded to Bishop Larkin and on March 21, 1985, he officially named the new mission, “Saint Timothy.” This name was particularly apropos: Saint Timothy had been a disciple of Saint Paul; Saint Timothy was a mission of Saint Paul Parish.
By January 26, 1986, permanent boundaries were established and Saint Timothy officially became a parish. Saint Paul parish hosted a party to celebrate the creation of this new parish and to say “good-bye” to its former mission. A few weeks later, on February 9, 1986, a formal groundbreaking ceremony was held on the building site, at 4015 Ragg Road, directly behind Gaither High School. Finally, after months of waiting to obtain the necessary county permits, construction was begun in July of 1986.
Masses continued to be celebrated in the storefront as the parishioners patiently awaited the completion of their new building.
On Holy Thursday, April 16, 1987, we celebrated our first Mass in the new building.
On May 24, 1987 the Ragg Road building was officially dedicated. It was our home until we outgrew it.
On September 8, 2001, we broke ground on our new location at 17512 Lakeshore Road in Lutz. Fifteen months later, on December 7th, 2002, we dedicated our new church and parish center. Our new site contains 28 acres, of which 14 are developed, leaving room for expansion.
The Parish Center contains over 19,000 square feet of meeting rooms, offices, work areas, the social hall and the kitchen. It also houses our Preschool.
The Church is 32,144 square feet. The main worship space seats 1341 parishioners and includes 18 handicapped seats and 47 seats in the choir area. For special services, like Christmas and Easter, we can add an additional 300+ chairs around the perimeter of the worship space. It is 53 feet to the top of the main dome.