Architect finds home in the Church through chapel project and relationships
Growing up, Jeff McGee’s identity was wrapped up in being a “PK” — a pastor’s kid.
That lived experience, coupled with a curiosity and questioning spirit, is what eventually led him and his family to the Catholic Church.
Jeff and his wife, Acadia, spent much of their 18 years of marriage church-hopping with their children, now 15, 12 and 10. They often returned to the Presbyterian church where Jeff’s dad serves as a pastor.
“We felt very unsettled, and didn’t know why, and didn’t know how to find what we were looking for, because we didn’t know what we were looking for,” Acadia said. “And it didn’t make sense to us, because we still had faith. We were like, why are we so unsettled in this?”
About five years ago, Jeff watched as one of his friends returned to the Catholic Church. His childhood best friend, who was also a Presbyterian pastor’s kid, became Catholic, too. He was bewildered. What was going on?
Jeff and his best friend were used to having loud and animated discussions over weighty topics, but when the subject of the Catholic faith came up, Jeff noticed his friend seemed calm and subdued. He invited Jeff to participate in Exodus 90, a program of prayer and asceticism, with a group of Catholic men.
Over the next several years with the group, Jeff went from being a determined dissenter — all the while continuing to bounce around to various Protestant churches with his wife and children — to what he described as having blinders pulled from his face.
“There was a breaking point of, I have to do this,” he said of becoming Catholic. “Like, I am in the wrong, and I can’t openly deny God like that. This is so critical.”
As all of this was happening, Jeff had been peripherally involved in the Chapel of the Risen Christ project at Resurrection Cemetery, which was designed by his architectural firm , St. Louis Design Alliance, and completed in August.
The project had been on hiatus when he looked up contact information for Catholic Cemeteries’ executive director Msgr. Dennis Delaney and Matt DeWitt, the cemeteries’ managing director of administration services, and sent them an email. He had met both of them early on in the project but didn’t know them well.
“I said, ‘I need to talk to you both urgently. This is not about the chapel project,’” Jeff recalled. “I spilled my guts on the table, and I was like, I have to become Catholic now. I don’t know how to do this, but I feel like my soul is going to fly apart.”
Jeff and Acadia became fast friends with Matt and his wife, Theresa, and the families met weekly as they went through the Christian initiation process together. The McGee family was welcomed into the Church on Pentecost of 2023 at St. John the Apostle and Evangelist Church in Downtown St. Louis, receiving the sacraments from Msgr. Delaney.
When the chapel project resumed the following year, Jeff took over construction administration, forming friendships with other Catholics who were involved in the project along the way. He also noted the father-like presence of Msgr. Delaney, who encouraged him and his family to become involved in parish life. Jeff now helps as a lector at Masses and leads a monthly faith enrichment group. Their boys help serve at Masses, too.
Jeff describes the chapel’s design with ease. He details the upward swooping nature of the ceiling from the entrance to above the altar as it lifts the eye toward heaven. The natural light that falls over the altar from a skylight in the ceiling makes it a focal point of the space. A near-life-size crucifix, a statue of the Pieta and the tabernacle speak to the dying and rising of the Lord and of His Real Presence.
“There’s movement everywhere in this, and it was the dynamism of Christ reflected in it,” he said. Being involved in the project “changed the landscape of my faith, my life, my house, how we operate as a family.”
Jeff said he most noticeably feels Jesus’ presence; it was something his kids picked up on when they first stepped into a Catholic Church, too.
“They were like, Jesus is here. That’s why we’re here,” Jeff said. One Sunday after receiving Communion, his youngest son asked him, “‘Why does my heart feel so good?’ And I was just like, man, these kids are getting it.”
“Coming to the Church has been completely wrapped up in this chapel project,” he said. “I don’t think there could ever be anything that can mean more to me personally.”
