The property currently occupied by St. John Fisher Church was pastureland in the 1950s when Fr. Francis Schaefers, then pastor of St. Thomas More Church in southwest Portland, started searching for a way to accommodate an influx of Catholic parishioners moving into southwest Portland.

Fr. Schaefers spearheaded a campaign to raise funds for a new church, to be located between St. Thomas More and St. Claire, another Diocese of Portland church in the southwest part of the city, and draw parishioners from each. Fr. Schaefers’ fundraising campaign included raffles, dinners, pledge drives and door-to-door campaigns.

Thanks to the efforts of Fr. Schaefers and a small group of loyal supporters, enough funds were raised between 1956 and 1959 to purchase 10 acres of land near S.W. 45^th and Vermont streets. The new parish was named St. John Fisher, after John Fisher, the English cardinal who was martyred for his faith along with Thomas More in 1535.

A parish school opened in September, 1959, staffed by the Sisters of St. Francis. The first Mass at the new church was held on September 20, 1959, in what is now the school gymnasium. The school honored its first graduating class in 1961.

The current church and rectory buildings were constructed in 1968 under the direction of Fr. Leland DeJardin, the parish’s pastor from 1960 to his death in 1972.  A 1994-98 capital campaign raised sufficient funds to add a wing to the south end of the school for an expanded library, technology lab and kindergarten classroom. Fr. Wayne Forbes has been SJF pastor since 1988.

Today, St. John Fisher Church has 900 member families and more than 20 ministries. St. John Fisher School is a K-8 elementary school with approximately 240 students and 24 faculty and staff. The school is accredited by Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges and certified by the Western Catholic Education Association.

For more information about the SJF Jubilee, please contact sjfjubilee@sjfschool.org.

Find out more about St. John Fisher Church at the www.johnfisher.org.