By Rita McInerney

Several churches were dedicated and one parish and one mission were established during 1987, another year of growth for the archdiocese of Atlanta.

The dedication of St. Andrew’s new church in Roswell on April 30 was the last official function for Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan who was stricken with a stroke the next day.

In his homily, the archbishop reflected on the emotional bond that binds people to the parish. The house where one is reared may become the home of strangers, he said, but the parish church where one received the sacraments, was married or celebrated his first Mass, from which loved ones were buried, is a place one can always come to be at home.

The new church is built on a 15-acre tract along the Chattahoochee River near Roswell Road in Fulton County. Father John Ozarowski is pastor. The parish was established in June, 1982 and parishioners worshiped in rented space in a business park since that time.

Christ Our Hope parish in Lithonia, DeKalb County, dedicated a new worship area on Aug. 2 with Monsignor John F. McDonough, vicar general, as principal celebrant. He was assisted by Father John Kieran, pastor, and priests of the archdiocese. The new worship area is the center wing of the new facility and will seat 300 people. The parish was established in August, 1984.

A new church seating 1,000 worshippers was dedicated at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Kennesaw, Cobb County, on Sept. 16. Monsignor McDonough, diocesan administrator, was principal celebrant. Father Leo Herbert is pastor.

The Kennesaw parish was established Sept. 29, 1977. Before the new church was completed, parishioners worshiped in a renovated church purchased from the United Methodist congregation in Kennesaw.

The new church for Our Lady of the Mountains mission in Jasper, Pickens County, was dedicated Nov. 7 by Father Vincent J. Douglass, C.SS.R., dean of the Northwest Rural Deanery and pastor of St. Gerard’s Church in Fort Oglethorpe.

The new building seats 154 people. Sixty families make up the congregation of the mission, established three years ago with Father Joseph J. Nolan, M.S., as pastoral administrator.

The parish of St. Lawrence in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, dedicated its new 600-seat church on Nov. 21 with Bishop Michael J. Begley, retired bishop of Charlotte, N.C., as principal celebrant. Assisting him was Father Ken Bayer, M.S.F.S., pastor. The parish, established in June, 1974, has 600 families enrolled.

On Nov. 22, a new church structure at Prince of Peace parish in Buford was blessed with Father Edward O’Connor, dean of the region, as principal celebrant, assisted by Father Richard Morrow, pastor. The structure was blessed instead of dedicated because it is felt that the rapid growth taking place in Gwinnett County will soon make a larger church necessary.

First Mass for the Buford parish community was celebrated in 1974 at the home of Vic and Sue Maloof.

A new parish was established in north Fulton County in 1987 with Father Joseph L. Peacock as pastor. The name of St. Benedict was selected for the new parish. A new mission in Fayette County, also established last year, is known as St. Gabriel’s.