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By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer
CUMMING—Just as St. Brendan the Navigator faithfully
established abbeys across Ireland, the nascent St. Brendan’s Church, led
with missionary spirit by Father William Hickey, a native of Ireland, has built
its first house of worship in south Forsyth County.
And what a quick climb up the spiritual ladder it’s been. The
church was established in February 1999 as a mission of Good Shepherd Church,
Cumming, due to the tremendous growth in Forsyth County, one of the fastest
growing counties in Georgia in the 1990s. The first Mass was held June 6, 1999,
at South Forsyth Middle School, which drew 1,100 attendees.
As it quickly became fruitful and attendance multiplied, scheduled
Mass times increased to four. By July 1999 there were 171 registered families
and by July 2000 the mission became a parish. Today parish registration stands
at about 1,100 families. The parish bulletin already lists a wide offering of
religious education, social and other activities for various ages, which had
been held in trailers on the property before the new facilities were built.
The Sunday evening Mass of dedication for the new building was
held on March 4. Some 1,100 parishioners and other supporters filled the church
for the service celebrated by Archbishop John F. Donoghue. Principal
concelebrants were the pastor and homilist Father Hickey, Father Bob Cushing,
spiritual director in residence, Father Steve Yander, chaplain at St.
Joseph’s Hospital, Atlanta, and Father Peter Rau, Good Shepherd’s
pastor.
Located on a former 28-acre horse farm at 4633 Shiloh Road, the
facility has a rustic setting defying the growth and development in the area.
The main church walls and carpet are shades of sage and grass green, harmonious
with surrounding green pastures outside, and a 20-foot Celtic cross is built
into the back wall behind the altar.
Opening the Mass, Father Hickey said, “This is a day that is
very precious to us. We are certainly quite elated that we have come to this
point in our life at St. Brendan’s and this is only just the beginning.
There is much more to come so strap yourself in and see what comes on the
way.”
Parishioner Timothy Hanley welcomed several political, educational
and religious leaders as well as representatives of the project’s general
contractor Lusk & Associates, Inc., architect Precision Planning, Inc., and
Dennis Kelly of Catholic Construction Services, Inc. Building committee
chairman Bill O’Brien then presented the ceremonial building key to
Archbishop Donoghue who handed it over to Father Hickey. The archbishop blessed
water and sprinkled it around the altar as the choir, led by directors of music
and liturgy Paul Tate and Deanna Light, led thae congregation in “Come to
the Water” and other songs.
Father Hickey said that the completion of the building project
involved hard work and good planning laced with miracles.
“It’s wonderful to be here and as I look around I see
magic and the miracles that have taken place over the last year and a half.
Today we are here to begin our journey. We opened our doors on Ash Wednesday
and we opened our doors to capacity crowds. Three services were absolutely
jam-packed. The celebration has begun,” he said. “We know we are on
the right road; however, we know we have to build again—so these
construction people and architects, don’t get too comfortable because
we’ll be coming at you again soon.”
Father Hickey called the dedication a time to examine the
missionary life of St. Brendan, a monk and later an abbot who lived circa
489-583 and was sent to bring the Good News of the Gospel across western
Ireland and Europe, navigating the high seas.
“You know the Irish believed that Brendan founded America
before Columbus and we’re sticking to that—but his whole spirit was
about mission,” Father Hickey said. “The vocation of the church today
and our own vocation here at St. Brendan’s is to offer sanctuary, that
place of rest, that place of serenity, that place of just being able to come
out of the busy world and make sense of it all in the spirit, the atmosphere,
of a loving God who has been there before us . . . It was a matter of him
chipping away at us and telling us what we needed and allowing us to dream on
through life and here it is—it’s a dream come true.”
He compared the congregation to musical instruments that are
carefully hollowed out to make a melody. And the faithful must remain
instruments of God.
“We’ve spent the last year and a half being hollowed
out. God was showing us how to create this place so that others might find that
serenity and that peace,” he said. “I believe that we’re on this
terrific journey and I believe that we do not have to lose heart. I believe
that the spirit that breathes in Vatican II breathes in this very church. I
believe that the light shines in us. I believe that we are blessed and we will
have to go through the storms.”
Parishioners will be challenged to keep the faith in ordinary days
as well as in stormy times.
“And in those ordinary days that’s where we ask for your
prayers, that we will keep going, that we will keep the spirit of Brendan in
our own hearts so that we might be mindful of the stranger that walks in, even
in our larger community. When we dedicate our church tonight, it has nothing to
do with us except it’s for the larger community. We are witnesses to the
world,” he said. “Tear down the walls and let the world see. We have
to be people of the world if we’re going to exist and succeed. And
it’s about tearing down the walls of prejudice. It’s about tearing
down the walls of fear. It’s about tearing all the walls down that build
up around us as individuals and as people.”
“A successful church is not a church that continues to look
in and on itself and says, ‘Aren’t we great? Aren’t we
magic?’ It’s not about that at all. It’s about outreach.
It’s about reaching out, and what a place to do it, in south Forsyth,
Georgia,” he said.
Father Hickey recognized the dedicated people and staff
who’ve worshipped out of the school and worked from trailers. “Yet
here we are. But life will go on testing us. The church may even go on testing
us. But the reality is if we stand firm and you continue to pray for us, God
will be there, because he has been there before us . . . The key is that we
celebrate the Eucharist as a eucharistic people. We’re a people who are
broken and shamed; we’re a people who are hollowed out and God is creating
from this . . . piece of wood this masterful sound.”
He thanked the archbishop and his fellow priests and he thanked
Good Shepherd and Father Rau who has been “a real gem” in supporting
him and helping him select the site.
The archbishop spoke a prayer of dedication. To somber sounds of
piano music, he anointed the altar with oil and incensed it. Founding family
Ken and Kathleen Bishop dressed the altar and Roseanne and Mark Bowen and Bea
and Bill Ollinger, also original members, lit candles on the altar and
elsewhere.
Father Rau then spoke, quoting from Victor Hugo that “nothing
is as powerful and as precious as a dream that is fully realized, a dream whose
time has come.” He acknowledged the groundwork laid by Father Richard
Morrow, former pastor of Good Shepherd, and others to first dream it, before
the idea was resurrected later by the archbishop and others.
“I thank Father Willie Hickey for stepping up to the plate
and taking on this awesome task. He’s a better man and the man for the
job.”
Reflecting that Vatican II spirit, Father Hickey welcomed to the
pulpit Rev. Dr. Martin Lifer, pastor of Parkway Presbyterian Church in Cumming,
whose church dedication he had attended.
“What a blessing it is for this county, this region to have
this church and Father Willie and all of the staff here carrying on the mission
of Jesus Christ,” said Rev. Lifer. “It is a blessing and how blessed
you are that God has sent you a pastor who has both a great vision and passion
for the larger mission of Christ for this community and church.”
The archbishop acknowledged the church’s Irish aura. “I
do want to say how pleased I am to be here today to dedicate and consecrate
this beautiful church to the honor and glory of God under the patronage of St.
Brendan the Navigator.”
He thanked Father Hickey who “has certainly been the driving
force behind this project—and I know that because he’s been driving
me and therefore I feel he’s been driving you even harder. But it was well
worth it to have a wonderful church.”
“He was right in reminding you to not be too comfortable in
what you have because there is still a lot to be done and I think that as long
as Father Willie is here he will see that it gets done,” he said, adding
that “he thinks that anything good that has ever been accomplished is done
by an Irishman and I don’t want to argue with him on that point because
I’m also of Irish descent.”
He also thanked the parish council, finance committee and all
other project supporters. “You’ve built a place where not only your
own lives will be nourished but the lives of many, many other people, people
you have no idea of today, who will come after you and worship in this place
and that’s why you’ve done a great thing,” he said.
“I’m very grateful to you.”
The parish acknowledged the work of the building committee
chairman, giving O’Brien and his wife a trip to the Emerald Isle.
The 31,000 square-foot “country Gothic” facility
includes a 935-seat church, the St. Sebastian chapel with stained glass
windows, administrative offices and a lower level with 14 classrooms, social
hall and full-service kitchen, five nurseries and library. The tan brick
exterior has California redwood arches and framework. The grounds include
Serenity Lane that has a small pond, a statue of St. Brendan and monks on a
boat and a little waterfall. The farm’s original barn was retained for
youth activities.
O’Brien later explained that this is the completion of phase
one of the project and that phase two will involve the construction of a
permanent church and converting the current church into a social hall and the
current social hall into more classrooms. He said with area growth the parish
projects having around 1,900 registered families by the end of 2002.
Fund raising on the $3.7 million project began in November 1999;
construction began in May 2000 and was completed in February. O’Brien said
the parish saved about $800,000 through innovative design, “value
engineering” and a lot of brainstorming, and the church was built “in
record-breaking time.”
“We did some innovative stuff, it was kind of a renaissance
in construction. It was a wonderful team effort between the architect,
contractor and the parish . . . a very cost-effective building, the least
expensive in the archdiocese since 1996,” he said. “Our focus was
cost efficiency for the parish and to give the archdiocese the best that we
could. That building is built to stand decades and decades and decades.
It’s all concrete, brick and iron.”
He said that Father Hickey is an old friend with whom he had
wanted to work and that the project for him has been “an incredible
journey.”
“This is not about me or Father Willie. It’s about the
people, our community under Father Willie’s leadership. This community is
just an astronomical community of people” in warmth and care, which is
reflected in the large membership even in the middle school.
Director of Religious Education Mary Radka is proud of the 550
children in religious education. The program, which began meeting in the
trailers last September, is already in full spiritual force with programs for
children, youth and adults. She and co-director Marian Monahan hope to add
Vacation Bible School this summer and to offer some kind of family catechism
and pre-school religious education on Sundays.
“We feel like it’s been very successful, very positive
for the first year to have as many kids as we’ve had. We’re really
excited about the program. Our adult education has been really diverse . . .
and we feel we’ve been able to minister to a lot of topics with adults and
more people have been coming to the adult education,” Radka said.
Lucine Pollock is one member who is grateful for the entire
parish. She had been away from the church for 25 years and, with her husband,
had begun visiting other Catholic and non-denominational churches before
finding a home at St. Brendan’s. She noted that there everybody is treated
with love.
“I have not missed Mass since Father Willie came here.
That’s the reason Tom became Catholic. We just got to a time in our lives
when we were really searching for something, visiting non-denominational
churches. I realized that I was Catholic all along. I think it’s just
wonderful,” she said.
Then, with the unspeakable loss of their son, the parish took on
deeper significance.
“My son was murdered a year ago and if it wasn’t for
Father Willie and this church I probably wouldn’t have survived . . .
Right after I came back to the church is when my son died and I would never
leave here. There’s so much more fellowship here and people really wanting
to help one another, not just the top people in the church. Everybody helps
everybody,” she said. “And that’s the way Father Willie treats
everyone.”
Her husband, Tom, who served on the building committee and is an
usher, became Catholic at St. Brendan’s, going through the initiation
program held at the middle school.
“It’s been a blessing,” he said. “The people
we’ve met, the leadership we have in Willie Hickey is just second to none.
It’s been one of the best things I’ve done in my life and I’m
proud to be a little part of what’s been done at St. Brendan’s . . .
(With) the things we do, we hope we’ll be a crown jewel in the Archdiocese
of Atlanta.” |
