By Thea Jarvis

Two churches and two missions staffed by the Glenmary Home Missioners will be turned over to the archdiocese of Atlanta this summer.

The church of St. Mark in Clarkesville and its mission of St. Helena in Clayton, as well as St. Francis of Assisi Church in Blairsville and its mission of St. Paul the Apostle in Cleveland are of sufficient size and stability to be returned to the archdiocese, said Glenmary president, Father Bob Dalton.

“The goal of Glenmary is to have our missions reach this level of maturity and independence,” Father Dalton said, emphasizing Glenmary’s dedication to pioneering the Catholic Church in areas where it is not yet present.

While the Glenmarys will be pulling up stakes in north Georgia, they will also be sending a priest and a Brother to develop a Catholic community in Putnam, Greene and Hancock counties in middle Georgia.

“I feel a…sense of excitement knowing that our missionary cycle begins all over again in the archdiocese of Atlanta and in middle Georgia,” Father Dalton said.

The Glenmarys began their work in the north Georgia mountains in 1959 in Dahlonega at a time when there were 10 known Catholics in the six-county parish. The congregation was returned to the archdiocese in 1982.

Clarkesville, Cleveland, Clayton and Blairsville became Glenmary territory in the early sixties.

Historically, the north Georgia mountain area has been characterized by a small but strong core of Catholics who have persevered in the faith despite a lack of numbers and physical plant.

In a speech at the 1968 dedication of St. Mark’s, parishioner John Thompson, now a deacon of the archdiocese, recalled that in the late fifties the three Catholic families living in Clarksville had to travel 20 miles to attend Mass in Toccoa. One Easter Sunday they moved in benches from a nearby football field to accommodate the crowd that had gathered in Clarkesville’s Lions’ community house for the Mass.

“The story of the last 30 years has not only been the story of the ministry of Glenmary Missioners in the area,” Father Dalton wrote to parishioners of the affected churches in March.

“Perhaps even more, it has been a story of some very dedicated lay people who have dreamed about the establishment of the church in this area and have worked tirelessly to accomplish it.”

Although churches and missions involved in the turnover are saddened by the departure of their beloved Glenmary friends, most parishioners knew the order’s goal is to build up the church and return mature, thriving faith communities to diocesan care.

The parishes are “very grateful the Glenmarys have been here this long,” said Sister Rosemary Wickham, OSF, pastoral associate at St. Francis in Blairsville.

She said parishioners there have a sense that “we are the church, we are the disciples” who will work with whoever is sent by the archdiocese to pastor the church.

Joan Doolan, a Newport, RI native who moved to Blairsville in 1981, keeps the books at St. Francis of Assisi parish. She said being in a Glenmary community means you’re “automatically renewed,” nurtured by the spirit and attitude of the order.

Their moving on is “to be expected. We know what their mission is,” she said “What was done for us we want to be done for others.

To that end, the parish council at St. Francis and its mission of St. Paul has allocated $50 a month from each congregation to go toward the new Glenmary outreach in middle Georgia.

According to Father Dalton, Putman, Greece and Hancock counties are fertile ground for Glenmary.

“There has never before been a Catholic ministry in Greene and Hancock counties,” he said. “At the same time, we are aware of approximately 100 Catholics currently living in Putnam County.”

Father John Farrelly, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Milledgeville, sees some of these outlying Catholics at his weekend liturgies.

Some travel over 30 miles – from outside Sparta and remote points of Lakes Sinclair and Oconee – to get to Mass, he said.

“It will be a great blessing” to have the Glenmarys in the area, he said.

He realizes some of his own parishioners may elect to affiliate with the new missions, and they will be missed, he said, but “people will have a church community more accessible to them. If it helps them, it’s great.”

Father Alex Keenan, a priest of the archdiocese of Boston who has been on loan to the Glenmarys, has pastored St. Mark’s for nearly four years. He said the parish turnover has been presented in a positive way.

“It’s a step towards recognizing all the hard work” that has been done, he said, not just by Glenmary, but by people in the parishes as well.

Father Keenan said the unity people have worked so hard to achieve could not be broken by a change in staff.

“In the end, it’s the people who are the church,” he said.

Bob Mulligan, the deacon at St. Helena’s who takes care of business while Father Keenan is at St. Mark’s, moved to Clayton from Connecticut with his wife, Trudy, in 1986.

Mulligan is a realist about the work involved in keeping up two congregations 30 miles apart.

“The Glenmarys are pretty well adept at this,” he said, citing house calls to remote mountain homes, hospital visits and the stress of providing Eucharistic liturgies across sizable distances.

People have some concerns, he said, about the possibility of “priestless Sundays,” a problem facing not only their local church, but the world community as well.

“It’s a trend we have to face up to,” he said. With the Glenmarys, “We were never left in the lurch” when it came time for Mass, despite the physical expanse that had to be covered.

But Glenmary is careful to discern when parishes are ready to be returned to the local diocese.

Father Dalton said churches must have certain ministries in place before the order takes their leave.

Nurturing the Catholic community with liturgy and religious education is foremost among the criteria. Outreach to the unchurched and ecumenism is included, as is ministry that addresses the social needs of the community at large.

Father Dalton acknowledged the “sense of loss” felt by parishioners and Glenmarys alike, but feels satisfaction at “a job well done.”

“It’s a time of completion,” he said. “This is what we’ve been working for.”