The Archdiocese of Chicago has two churches of Saint Anne (while one Saint Anne and one Saint Ann) along with a Shrine of Saint Anne. That last does not have Saturday Masses anymore, something I only learned today when I noticed that the church which hosts the shrine has a newer website and the older one is not only out of date, but has a phone number on it no longer connected.
Saint Ann is in Lansing, Saint Anne is in Barrington, pretty much in opposite directions from me and since Saint Ann has its Saturday Mass an hour and fifteen minutes earlier than Saint Anne, I ended up going to Barrington.
Barrington is a wealthy suburb with a per capita income of $64,507 and the parish definitely reflects that. In addition to celebrating the memorial of Saint Anne this weekend, the parish was also celebrating the 25th anniversary of the expansion of the church building which essentially meant building a whole new church attached to the old one with a reception hall between them. A portion of the old church is kept as a chapel while the remainder is, I think, repurposed for other needs.
This is the most recently constructed church building of my travels and possibly the newest in the archdiocese. Time will tell.
The church itself is an unusual design, with the pulpit and altar facing each other across a central space with the seats arranged facing this on both sides.
After Mass, they had cake, which was kind of nice, and the Mass featured service music with a copyright date of 2025, but overall, it felt somewhat sterile to me.
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