By Thea Jarvis

One a clear, cold February Thursday in the gold-tapped hills of Dahlonega, it is time for the St. Luke’s “lunch bunch” to meet.

Opening the noontime festivities at the combination rectory/Catholic center a block down from the church, Glenmary pastor Father Bob Poandl gathers his friends around him for a toast to new life. Church bulletin editor Frances Boerner’s new grandchild is due any time, and that warrants a moment of special celebration.

Parishioner Rosemary Fraker has turned out a feast of spaghetti with mushrooms, despite her throbbing feet, and bearded Glenmary volunteer Mark Bornholdt – all six-plus feet of him – has had his appetite on hold since eleven. Frances’ two daughters and their young children join hands for the blessing with the others and lunch begins.

Throughout the meal, a Thursday tradition since Father Bob’s arrival three years ago, people come and go amidst catch-up conversation and parish news.

“The first time we had the Methodist minister over for Thursday lunch,” recalls Frances with unmasked glee, “we gave Father Bob a slotted spoon for his soup. He remarked to our visitor that he sometimes has to put up with a lot from his friends.”

Francois Pelissier, the Glenmary deacon who began life in France and ended up riding a bicycle through the north Georgia hills, strolls in, grabs a cupcake, and asks for word on the newly-appointed Archbishop of Paris.

When someone mentions his big-wheeled bicycle, a familiar sight on the streets of Dahlonega, he claims the vehicle for his homeland. “It’s a Japanese bike that I bought in Washington, but the wheels are definitely French!”

The doorbell rings and Father Bob takes time out for an elderly gentleman in need of help. The parish eyeglass and denture fund comes to the aid of many like him who are financially unable to take care of basic health needs.

When lunch is over, Mark helps Rosemary with the dishes. Ruby appears, looking for Father Bob. A spare, gray-haired lady who has known many north Georgia winters, she enjoys a hot cup of coffee and one of Rosemary’s cupcakes while she shares news of her invalid son, confined to a wheelchair since an auto accident.

The parade of people continues. Father Bob counsels quietly in the dining room with a man experiencing stress in his marriage. Donna, a new convert who has recently moved from Newnan with her husband, has forgotten the name of a thoughtful parishioner who invited her to dinner. She is looking for a parish roster.

A St. Louis physician who came to Dahlonega two years ago with a federal fund health project and decided to make north Georgia his home stops by after hospital rounds, joining Donna for coffee and a chat at the kitchen table.

The observing eye of an outsider registers what is clearly apparent to St. Luke’s parishioners – the church is a hub, a center, around which a community gathers to share life. The relationships formed here run deep, like the gold that was once mined in the Dahlonega countryside.

Here, in the foothills of the Appalachians, the heart of the Archdiocese of Atlanta enlarges, as the Charities Drive reaches out to support those in rural ministry.

“Our archdiocesan grant from that once-a-year Drive frees us up to use our own resources and expand our outreach, both within the Catholic community and beyond it, where great numbers of unchurched are in need,” said Father Bob.

He rejects the notion of “sleepy little mountain towns where a sense of well-being prevails.” He finds, instead, that the realities of poverty, divorce, hunger, and unemployment are no strangers to the hills.

“We tithe 10 percent of our monthly parish collection for the needs of the poor. This emergency fund helps out with food, clothing, medicine, utility payments – basic needs,” Father Bob continued. “But the greatest gift we can give people, beyond these necessities, is hope, love and caring. The best way to do this is together, as a community of Catholics.”

To this end, the Glenmary dynamo has initiated parish renewal weekends for his 400 parishioners spread over the three-parish, four-county mission territory – St. Paul the Apostle in Cleveland, St. Francis of Assisi in Blairsville, and St. Luke’s in Dahlonega.

“Presently, about 45 percent of our adults have experienced the renewal weekend,” he said with pride. “We are focusing on loving each other, building warm and affectionate relationships with the members of our Catholic community. It really works!”

It is working outside the Catholic community as well. Father Bob, who belongs to three ministerial associations in the area, shares prayer and lunch with the local Presbyterian minister once a week. Ecumenical dialogue is ongoing with the Baptist and Methodist congregations, in addition to evangelical churches that dot the rural countryside.

“During our parish renewal,” said Father Bob, “the local churches prayed for us during their Sunday morning services. When the renewal was over, they expressed real interest in how it went.”

The chilly February Thursday in the hills moves toward midafternoon. St. Paul the Apostle Church in Cleveland, 20 miles up the road, awaits the three o’clock arrival of the Glenmary spirit.

Mark Bornholdt, who is using his volunteer time to determine the direction of his own vocation, bids a quick farewell to Father Bob and friends, and heads his car northeast through winding mountain roads, past quiet dairy farms whose grasses have browned with the winter frosts.

Franciscan Sisters Lene Rubly and Joan Meyer, Father Bob Poandl’s pastoral associates and religious education coordinators for the three rural parishes, welcome Mark at the Cleveland Catholic Center, which is their home. This afternoon, each corner of the snug and tidy white frame house will be filled with children from three to 14 years old, eager to renew their faith and taste a cookie in the warmth of the sisters’ kitchen.

“Four years ago, we began with five students and two teachers,” recalled Sister Joan. “Today we have 39 children and eight teachers in Cleveland alone.”

The sisters’ ministry includes summer Bible schools in the surrounding counties and visitation of the sick and elderly.

“This work is really marvelous,” said Sister Joan with enthusiasm. She smiles readily at the children as they pass through her kitchen toward the large living room where all ages gather for opening instruction. “It’s such a challenge and a joy to see the growth – to see the level of involvement of the people here.”

The Catholic community in Cleveland is visible testimony to that growth, and a living example of how our generosity in the Charities Drive each year has sought to reach out beyond its own boundaries to nurture the life of the Church.

“For nine years, Cleveland Catholics celebrated Mass in the Methodist church,” said Sister Joan Meyer. “We were finally able to purchase some local farmland and renovated a house on the property for a church of our own. This first church will become a residence for religious when we complete our all-purpose building.”

The new structure, scheduled for completion in 1982, will be built by the men of St. Paul the Apostle parish and will serve as church and parish hall until other buildings are added. Two Glenmary brothers will supervise the construction.

For the present, however, the Catholic children of Cleveland are anxious to begin their afternoon together. Joining hands with Sister Joan, Sister Lene, Mark and the other teachers, they pray the Our Father as a sign of the faith they share.

Shadows begin to gather as the afternoon draws to a close. Later this evening, Mark will rendezvous with Father Bob close to the North Carolina border at the newly dedicated church of St. Francis of Assisi in Blairsville. There they will celebrate seven o’clock Mass with the Catholic community.

It has been a day of faith and commitment in the Catholic outposts of the rural South, a day shared not only by Father Bob Poandl and his fellow ministers – Francok, Mark, Sister Joan and Sister Lene – but one shared by all members of the Archdiocese of Atlanta as the mission ministry goes on.

Here, gifts generously given by the people of God in north Georgia is their one-day annual drive nourish, renew, and expand the Body of Christ in remote rural communities.

Stop in for lunch some Thursday at St. Luke’s and see for yourself.