BY THEA JARVIS

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--The heavy oak doors at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Atlanta have been flung wide to welcome Olympic visitors to the city's oldest church.

The historic structure, long a red brick bastion of hospitality to area Catholics, is a calm port in the Olympic storm engulfing Atlanta this summer. With a Warsteiner beer garden on one side and the World of Coca-Cola and Underground Atlanta on the other, the Shrine beckons passersby with a promise of quiet refreshment and a chance to tour the descendant of one of the few buildings General Sherman left standing during his infamous march to the sea.

"It will be an oasis" for thousands of weary, heat-stricken folks visiting Atlanta for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, said Pat Gardella, the Shrine's high-spirited coordinator of Olympic outreach.

The church, founded in 1848 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. through Aug. 31. Two water stations staffed by volunteers operate outside, while inside immaculate rest rooms and a spacious social hall are a boon to footsore travelers.

Multicultural musical entertainment is offered three times a day as part of an interdenominational Celebrate Faith and Arts alliance, with groups like the Salvation Army Brass Choir, Young Singers of Callanwolde, the King's Kids and the Archbishop Lyke Choir performing. An expanded daily and weekend Mass schedule accommodates the influx of visitors, and several liturgies are offered in Spanish and German.

On a hot, humid July morning, Gardella moves through the church with executive aplomb. Partner in a family-owned design and photography business, she has made a personal commitment to the Shrine's history and hospitality that will last long after the Games are over.

"I definitely believe in this," she said with pride.

Pointing to a rainbow of long, narrow streamers suspended from pillars inside the church, Gardella said international visitors "love the banners," crafted in 18 different languages by members of parishes all over the Archdiocese of Atlanta. Foreign guests particularly enjoy having their pictures taken under their home banner, she said.

The majority of Shrine guests from other countries have been Catholic, according to Gardella, while more non-Catholics make up the U.S. visitor roster. Many have no doubt learned of the Shrine through thousands of brochures distributed for the Shrine's Olympic debut to local tour operators, downtown hotels, Georgia welcome centers, Olympic venues and the Atlanta History Center.

Gardella stops by a welcome site in the church foyer, where cheerful greeters seated at a card table invite a steady stream of people to sign the open guest book and take a guided tour. Some visitors are hoping for a brief respite from the heat, perhaps some prayer time, while others are eager for the historic insights.

"It surprises me how neat and clean it is," Raymond Wagner, a wayfaring Ohioan, said of the church. "Sherman must have been Catholic" to have left the Shrine standing, he said as he enjoyed a tour after noon Mass.

Wagner and other visitors learn that Confederate chaplain and Shrine pastor Father Thomas O'Reilly prevailed upon Union General William Tecumseh Sherman to spare the original wooden structure during the siege of Atlanta in 1864. Over 100 years later, in 1982, fire gutted the current church interior, leaving little for wandering pilgrims to savor. After restoration in 1984, the Shrine began its current phase of hospitality, welcoming the homeless with food and shelter, ministering to persons with AIDS, inviting the public to share the church's rich heritage.

Volunteer Gretchen Jones keeps watch at the Shrine door while her husband, Jim, shows Wagner's tour group the original wood of the choir staircase, the deep-hued murals of the apostles on the church ceiling, and the lower crypt, where the legendary Father O'Reilly is buried.

The Joneses, members of St. Jude the Apostle Church north of Atlanta, had never been to the Shrine before signing on as Olympic volunteers. They came aboard after Shrine parishioners visited archdiocesan parishes asking for help and discovered a hidden jewel not far from their suburban Atlanta home. Following informal training sessions, the Joneses became part of the over 300-person pool that is turning the Shrine into an Olympic venue all its own.

"There's so much history to it" said Mrs. Jones, festively outfitted in a regulation Shrine T-shirt, colorful Olympic badge, white shorts and tennis shoes. "They've made it very easy to be comfortable giving tours. We're not having a test on it," she said happily.

Without the generosity of folks like Jim and Gretchen Jones, the Shrine's small congregation of 300 households couldn't handle the Olympian task the church has undertaken. Many parishioners live beyond parish boundaries and, because of restricted street and interstate access during the Games, are unable to make their usual trip downtown. The substantial financial burden the small parish is shouldering has also been a challenge.

"Overhead will probably quadruple for July and August for air conditioning and water alone," said Gardella. "We need an awful lot of money to keep this place open."

Gardella puts the Shrine's Olympic expenditures at roughly $60,000, a figure that includes everything from eucharistic breads and altar candles to programs and piano rental. The finances, combined with the numbers of people expected to pour through the Shrine's welcoming arches, is "mind boggling," she said. "We try not to think about it."

To meet expenses, Friends of the Shrine, whose members regularly support Shrine preservation efforts, are raising extra funds for the Olympic push.

Collectible T-shirts, Olympic pins and coffee mugs as well as original religious art, jewelry and ceramics are sold at modest prices in the Shrine's lower level gift shop. And while church tours, water and rest room facilities are provided free of charge, donation boxes are available for those who wish to share in the Shrine's ongoing ministry of hospitality.

Shrine pastor Father John Adamski is enjoying his bird's-eye view of the Olympic spectacle. Like other residents of this busy intown neighborhood, Father Adamski is limited in his coming and going because of the sheer numbers of people using city streets and public transport facilities.

"I'm not going anywhere," said Father Adamski against a backdrop of oom-pah-pahs bellowing from the beer garden next store. "I'll be here singing all these German songs!"

While the spirit of the Games is catching, Father Adamski, who marks his 25th year of ministry this Olympic summer, says it's a challenge to maintain an atmosphere of hospitality "in the midst of craziness." He understands the Olympics are "not a welcome wagon for everybody," particularly the homeless who regularly look to the Shrine for a helping hand.

"We don't know what will happen" as competition gets underway, Father Adamski mused. "Situated where we are, between major Olympic venues, there's a great deal of foot traffic around us." Hopefully, he said, "we'll be a place of hospitality for any and all."

The Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is located at 48 Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive, SW, at the corner of Central Avenue. For further information about the Shrine schedule of Masses and tours, call (404) 521-1866. To volunteer during the Olympics/Paralympics, call (404) 355-4545 or (404) 458-0761.