By Gretchen Keiser

If you belong to one of those metropolitan Atlanta parishes where it’s hard to find a parking space on Sunday morning, consider this.

In another part of the archdiocese, some of your fellow Catholics belong to a mission church where, after the one Sunday morning Mass, all those who can make it go to breakfast together and sit around one big table at Carol’s Country Kitchen.

“Every Sunday morning, we go out and have breakfast,” said Rita Lowe, who is one of the most active members of Christ Redeemer Catholic Mission in Dawsonville. Not every one of the 12 or 13 active families in the parish can go to breakfast each week, but “through the year everyone goes at one time or another,” Mrs. Lowe said. “They know we’re coming and they have the big table set up.”

The Mass in Dawsonville, which was established as a mission of St. Luke’s in Dahlonega about four years ago, is celebrated at 8:30 a.m. in the Dawsonville United Methodist Church, a 140 year-old church building just a few blocks off the main road.

The small Catholic community shares quarters and a Christian relationship with the similarly small Methodist community, pastored by the Reverend Bill Mouldin. The pastor and his wife, Lois, and several other members of the Methodist church attended the Feb. 9 Catholic Confirmation ceremony celebrated by Archbishop Thomas Donnellan. Five young people from two parish families were confirmed. Similarly, when the Methodist bishop visited the church, Catholics from Christ Redeemer came to the service.

“At Christmas time we have a potluck dinner and prayer service with the Methodist Church…We sing Christmas carols and then their minister and our pastor say prayers…We have a really good relationship with the Methodist Church,” Mrs. Lowe observed.

The intimacy within the small Catholic group and the sharing with the Methodist Church are but two unique aspects of a community that longs to grow and have its own church some day.

With access to Georgia 400 and land prices considerable below those in neighboring counties closer to metropolitan Atlanta, Dawson County is considered to be an area of significant future growth.

Jim Lowe, an electrician who works throughout Dawson County, said that a development estimated to have 300 homes is just getting underway in one part of the county. Other commercial development is taking place along 400, according to Father John Henley, pastor of the mission.

“It’s the growth in north Fulton (county) and south Forsyth (county) that’s causing potential growth and real growth in Dawson County,” said Ray Lavoie, who is property manager for the archdiocese of Atlanta.

While Forsyth County at the northern edge of Atlanta’s sprawl would seem to be the area most likely to grow, real estate agents indicate that Dawson County government is more open to growth and development than their colleagues to the south, Lavoie said.

The sparsely developed Dawson County was estimated to have under 5,000 people in the 1980 census.

But business and technical parks that are being developed in north Fulton County suggest the possibility of living not in Fulton County, but in Forsyth or Dawson to the north, where land prices would make it possible for some to “have an estate” rather than a home to the south, Lavoie said.

“(Georgia) 400 is like a back alley to Atlanta, or a front gate if you want,” said Father Henley, who is pastor of St. Luke’s and the Dawsonville mission. “People from St. Luke’s and our mission who commute back and forth every day, a lot of them work in north Atlanta and it’s less than an hour.”

In addition to the year-round residents, the church population is swelled each year by summer visitors, Father Henley, said. Their presence brings the summertime congregation at Christ Redeemer Mission up to about 60 to 70 people.

The Dawsonville mission has purchased over nine acres of land for a future church and is in the process of repaying that loan. A building fund for the church has been started, but when that day might come is still unclear.

In the meantime, those who are the founding members of the mission respect the special qualities of its smallness and closeness.

“When you come to Mass on Sunday morning, you know who’s there and who isn’t,” said Rita Lowe, who came, with her husband, Jim from a New Jersey parish with about 2,300 families.

“It’s more intimate and more family oriented,” she continued. Since there is only one Mass, families “come as a family” to church rather than going to separate Masses.

In their old parish, Jim Lowe agreed, “there were names and numbers and you really didn't know all the people. As far as knowing them face to face, you really didn’t.”

The smallness of the mission means that he and Rita “are the traveling sacristy.”

Each Sunday they bring all the vestments, the chalice and articles for Mass to the Methodist church. “On Sunday morning, we change the church from a Methodist church to a Catholic church,” Jim Lowe said. While the relationship between the two congregations is excellent, the mission looks forward to the day when they can display a “Catholic Church” sign on their own building and attract Catholics who, they believe, are in the area, but either not practicing the Catholic faith or attending other churches.

Jim Lowe believes that “the potential is great” in Dawson County for future growth and for a strong Catholic church there. But with such a small base of families currently, it is difficult to raise enough money to start a church.

“If we could find somebody who’d like to donate a lot of money, a Daddy Warbucks, that would be great,” he joked. “We feel there is tremendous potential for a real fullfledged church in Dawsonville and Dawson County,” he said.