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BY FRANK X. ELLIS
Special To The Bulletin
DOUGLASVILLE--It was a long time coming, but parishioners of St.
Theresa’s Church were all smiles Saturday, July 31.
Archbishop John F. Donoghue officiated at the dedication of the
church’s new education and family life center, which is immediately
adjacent to the church building.
The new facility contains 14 classrooms, five offices and several rooms
equipped with dividers that can be folded back to enlarge certain areas.
At completion of the nine-month project, Steve Rainwater, of Rainwater
Construction Co., Atlanta, which built the center, commented on his impression
of the parishioners working on the project.
“This was the nicest building committee and the fairest and easiest to
work with in my years of construction.”
Opening the facility was the final step in the $1.7 million project, said
Father Stewart Wilber, pastor of St. Theresa’s. In addition to the new
facility, the project included replacing the roof on the church, the addition
of a large commercial kitchen in the church’s parish hall, expansion of
the parking lot, storm sewer improvements, work on the rear service road and
landscaping the property.
Parishioners voted to name the new facility the St. Theresa Family Life
Center.
The new office space will house parish ministries including the parish
council, the parish school of religion, elementary education, youth ministry,
St. Vincent de Paul Society, Knights of Columbus, Ladies Guild, ministry to the
sick and homebound, and Gabriel’s Angels, which provides companionship for
the elderly and shut-ins.
In a letter in the parish bulletin, Father Wilber reminded parishioners of
how the project had begun and was being financed. When the archbishop decided
to mount an archdiocesan-wide capital campaign in the spring of 1997, the
parish’s building and finance committees and the pastor decided to
“piggy-back” on the archbishop’s campaign in order to meet
pressing needs at the parish level.
The parish, Father Wilber noted, ran its “Growing Toward Tomorrow”
capital campaign during the second half of 1997. It was a success with over
$1.5 million pledged. Of that amount, $1.1 million went toward local
construction and $406,000 was for the archdiocesan-wide campaign.
The family life building becomes a much needed part of St. Theresa’s,
whose church building was dedicated Feb. 27, 1989, by then Archbishop Eugene A.
Marino, SSJ. The parish now numbers over 700 families and there has long been a
need for educational and social function facilities. Religion classes for
children and adults previously met in very limited quarters in the church
basement.
St. Theresa’s was established in November 1985 as an offshoot of St.
John Vianney Parish in Lithia Springs.
The founding pastor was Father Edward O’Connor, succeeded by Father
Hugh Marren, then by Father William Hickey and the present pastor, Father
Wilber. Father Augustine Tran serves as the parochial vicar and Deacon Paul
Dietz is the church’s permanent deacon.
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