BY SUSAN STEVENOT SULLIVAN

Georgia Bulletin Staff Writer

NEWNAN--A handful of families eager to worship in their own community petitioned for a mission in this ante-bellum town in 1938.

In those days the small, stable congregation of St. George Mission was able to worship in a parishioner's home. The congregation grew steadily until a few years ago, when it began to boom.

The Atlanta suburbs have grown out as far as this seat of Coweta County and newcomers are discovering its mixture of columned mansions and strip shopping centers, 30 minutes from Hartsfield International Airport. They are flocking to subdivisions springing up between Newnan and Peachtree City.

Thanks to years of vision and an attitude of welcome, St. George Parish appears ready for them.

Father Leo Herbert, in his fourth year as pastor, said the parish currently includes nearly 800 families and is growing by more than 100 families a year.

"Once the growth jumps over I-85 this church will become another Holy Trinity," the Peachtree City parish with more than 2,000 families and explosive growth, he said.

Father Herbert has experience with parish growth. He was pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Kennesaw during the nine-year period when the parish grew from 99 families to 1,900.

"This was a sedate, county parish until four or five years ago," he said of St. George. "We are very appreciative of the vision the priests and parishioners had in the past, buying all this property (35 acres) not knowing of the possibility of the growth."

Most of the newer parishioners are described by their pastor as young couples with children. The religious education staff was recently expanded to meet the additional needs of children and young adults. A capital campaign is being developed to add an activities building, including classrooms, offices and a chapel, to the parish site.

"There's a great sense of excitement in the parish that our youth are now being addressed," Father Herbert said, adding that some of the long-standing parishioners are mourning the loss of the quiet, intimate parish they had known.

An indication of the growth is the weekend Mass schedule. One vigil Mass and three Sunday Masses accommodate parishioners in a 400-seat church built in 1969.

The architecture of the church is dominated by large, luminous stained glass windows, designed and made by Trappist monks at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers. Each was donated by a parishioner.

The mission, which became a parish in 1974, was served by Redemptorist priests from 1950 until 1992, when it was returned to the archdiocese and Father Herbert arrived.

"I was the first diocesan priest here in more than 40 years," Father Herbert said, as he recalled viewing the rectory and then the church with its offices, classrooms, kitchen and activity room. A spacious parking lot is backed by a meadow and the entrance to the St. Francis Nature Trail, near a rustic altar. The trail and altar were Eagle Scout projects of young parishioners.

The property also includes a play yard, utility building and acres of woods. The grounds are meticulously landscaped and maintained by parishioners.

"I was stunned," he said. "I didn't expect anything like this to be here. It's proven to be an absolutely wonderful experience--as good a parish as I have ever been in. The people are wonderful, so eager to help and so tolerant of me and all the changes."

While the changes are significant, the parish still retains its unique character and traditions.

Some of these traditions are spiritual, such as the Wednesday evening novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, an unbroken prayer in the parish for at least 40 years.

Others are social, such as the St. George's Women's Association annual bake sale. This decades-old offering of homebaked goods was once a critical source of parish operating funds. Now the club uses the money for continuing education scholarships and sacristy needs, according to president Karon Calhoun.

In the fall, breads, pies and cakes are the club's focus. On Nov. 22, according to Father Herbert, the area outside the parish hall will be crowded with anxious area residents toting boxes.

As a bell rings, the doors open and what the pastor describes as a "stampede" occurs, resulting in the clearing of up to 40 tables of baked goods in a matter of minutes.

Culinary traditions also include a semi-annual shrimp and catfish dinner sponsored by the Men's Club. The meal has become more of a community-wide social event than the critical parish fund-raiser it once was, according to club president Greg Stefanchick. The organization's sandwich booth at the Labor Day weekend Powers Crossroads Country Fair and Art Festival, one of the area's best-known events, does have fund-raising value, he said.

The tradition of fund raising with food also extends to the junior youth group at the parish. The sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders cook a spaghetti supper and serve it each year. The money is used to buy food for Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets for the needy.

Continuity continues in the parish bulletin. Father Herbert retained the Redemptorist art and reflections which have traditionally been included in the weekly parish flyer. The bulletin still displays an extensive prayer list of all ailing relatives and friends of parishioners.

Bulletins are collated and folded after the Friday noontime Mass by those who attend the liturgy. The more than two dozen volunteers are then treated to a gourmet buffet cooked by parishioner and former caterer, Carolyn Konis.

As in years past, the parish continues to help with the community's Coweta Food Pantry, a project of area churches. Volunteers were sent in October to help with the operation of this outreach to the needy.

Funds generated by a tip jar at the Georgia Dome food stand run by the parish Knights of Columbus chapter are also used to help the area's poor residents.

Father Herbert said other ecumenical traditions continue as well, particularly among the First Baptist, Episcopal, Central Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodist churches.

Each Lent, he said, each church hosts a Wednesday Lenten service at noon followed by a lunch. Father Herbert has preached at other denomination's churches as a part of this series and their ministers have preached at St. George.

"It's a good, healthy relationship," said Father Herbert, who has been known to participate in rounds of ecumenical golf and sets of tennis. "We respect each other and each other's traditions. I think it reflects the very open, warm atmosphere of this community."

In an effort to extend that warm atmosphere quickly to new parishioners the parish recently implemented a newcomer's packet. The packet introduces the organizations, staff, educational and social

opportunities at St. George and includes a history of the parish and registration form, as well as an explanation of the parish's stewardship philosophy.

New parishioners have swelled the enrollment of the religious education program to more than 375 children, including 90 youth aged 11 to 18. A high school youth group was recently started to help meet the needs of young adults.

In September parishioner Connie Cebulski accepted responsibility for ministering to this age group. "I want to get the kids involved in the church anyway I can," she said. "So often once they're confirmed they don't come back."

Mrs. Cebulski planned the parish's first-ever Dance/Campout/Breakfast for the last Saturday in October to attract youth to a church event. Since many participants traveled long distances from other parishes to the dance, they were invited to bring snacks and camp out in the parish meadow. The next morning, St. George's youth group followed a sunrise prayer service with a hot breakfast and religious education for the attendees.

Director of Religious Education Joan Vinnacombe is enthusiastic about another new member of her team, Sister Bridget Ann Henderson BVM, an award-winning former superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Phoenix. Sister Henderson's "retirement" in Newnan includes guiding the parish confirmation class, serving on the adult education committee, leading the vocations committee and giving workshops for catechists.

Another educational endeavor which is located at the parish is an independent preschool/kindergarten with a Catholic-oriented curriculum. The Academy of St. George was founded in 1992 by Mary Theresa Siurano Mitchell, who serves as principal.

Mrs. Mitchell started the school based on her decades of experience in Catholic education and the need she found when relocating to Newnan. Students and faculty wear uniforms and follow a half-day curriculum that includes prayer, art, music, foreign language, reading, mathematics and other components.

"The school's focus is on both the head and the heart of the child," she said, "that each child can develop and grow into the fullness of a Christ-like person, which God has intended for all his children."

Mrs. Mitchell hopes the program, which has an enrollment of 51, can evolve into a Catholic primary school.

Such dedicated newcomers as Mary Mitchell and Sister Henderson build on the achievements of past parish personalities, such as Father Richard E. Vail CSsR, a beloved pastor whose death from cancer in November, 1985, did not end the impact he had on the parish.

Parishioners dedicated an Our Lady of Fatima grouping (the three child statues were purchased with bake sale money) in memory of his ministry and Marian devotion.

One of Father Vail's last wishes was that the parish form a Legion of Mary. Active for a decade, some legion members visit shut-ins and take Communion to the sick, while others support their work in prayer or by making knotted rosaries.

Marianne Himes, one of the "rosarymatics," according to other members, constructs rosaries whenever the opportunity allows. The group's rosaries have been distributed on the streets of Calcutta by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. They have also been given away in Okinawa and, with the help of Sister Sponsa Beltran, in the Ivory Coast.

"We have 10 active members and 58 who support us in prayer," said the legion's vice-president, Theresa Mullins. "With that many people we are able to touch a lot of lives. So often we plant the seed and someone else does the harvest."

While the growth of St. George's parish population presents many challenges, it also provides new life and energy, according to Marlene Kiesel, parish publicity person and parishioner for almost two decades.

"For years we prayed for younger people to join our organizations," she said. "The same people were doing everything."

"Now they're coming," said Mrs. Vinnacombe, the parish director of religious education. "They've moved away from their families and this parish becomes their family. They are so eager to participate. This year we had seven new catechists sign up. Their kids are happy and they're happy."

"It's an exciting parish," said Father Herbert. "People are very upbeat about it. People love this parish. We do have a few back pew warmers here, but they are few and far between."

"There is a great feeling of community here," he said.