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By Betty Schoenbaechler, Special To The Bulletin
MARIETTA—From the moment one walks into the Church of the
Transfiguration it is apparent that there is something different about this
place.
Warm, welcoming, youthful, energetic, spiritual: These are all
words that are used to describe the faith community here, but they do not fully
do it justice. What truly makes the parish unique is that it is a large church
of 4,156 families that feels small.
When people arrive for the Sunday liturgy, they greet each other
with open affection and seek out and welcome newcomers. Children are
everywhere. Details like having a designated restroom stall for children and a
step stool so little ones can reach the sink show the care given them. Coffee
and doughnuts are served after every Sunday morning Mass.
Transfiguration is unique in several ways, according to Msgr. Pat
Bishop, the current and third pastor in the 24-year history of the parish.
“The Eucharist is number one,” he said. Great attention
is given to every aspect of the celebration of the Eucharist. The parish also
recently celebrated five years of perpetual adoration.
“Reason number two would be its youthfulness and how involved
everyone is in all the different ministries and activities of the parish. Our
parishioners are very gifted, active and enthusiastic. When they make a
commitment they follow through with it,” he said.
He also cites the church’s administration, which includes the
staff, heads of programs and the lay leadership.
“They put their hearts and souls into what they do here. I am
very proud of Transfiguration,” he said. “It feels like a small
parish, doesn’t it? They’ve kept that warm, friendly feeling that
(Father) Raymond Horan started and (Msgr.) Henry Gracz continued and I hope
I’ve built on, too. This has always been an incredibly warm parish.”
There is more to this church than warm feelings, however. “I
think when we’re serious, we’re serious. The Eucharist is a good
example. We’re very focused and our liturgies are absolutely correct. We
don’t do any foolishness. But, when the liturgy allows us do things like
celebrate a 50th anniversary or banter back and forth, you have to take
advantage of that. I think that’s one of the things that attracts people
to this parish,” said Msgr. Bishop.
When the northeast Cobb County parish was established in September
1977, there were 45 families. Mass was celebrated in the Save Inn Motel on U.S.
41 by the founding pastor, Father Horan.
The community met at other locations until 1980 when Mass first
was celebrated on Blackwell Road in the Kirby Building, a metal structure
affectionately known as the Tin Tent.
Msgr. Gracz became pastor in 1981 and the church was constructed
under his leadership. According to parish history, he brought a small rock and
soil from Mount Tabor in the Holy Land, the site of Christ’s
transfiguration. The soil was buried under the altar location and the rock used
in a stained glass window in the chapel. When the new church opened in March
1984 the Tin Tent became the Family Life Center.
Soon after Msgr. Bishop became pastor in 1989, the church
implemented a major expansion project, which included the purchase of
additional property and the opening of a new church wing with a large baptismal
font and stained glass windows. The church conducted a fund drive in 1994,
which led to the June 1997 dedication of a new parish center for religious
education classes, social activities and offices. The activity center was named
Bishop Hall in 1999, in honor of the pastor’s 25 years as a priest. From
the outside, the Transfiguration building somewhat resembles a state-of-the-art
conference center, but upon closer inspection one catches a glimpse of some of
the renowned stained glass windows and the large cross towering over the
church.
Msgr. Bishop appreciates the thought and care his predecessors put
into planning the church, which seats 1,200, and especially likes the way the
pews are arranged in a semicircle around the altar.
“I feel this building gives me an opportunity to connect
individually with everybody at Mass,” he said. “I can see their
faces. My eyesight is not that good and in churches that are long and narrow, I
can see only about a third of the way back and then everyone’s face is a
blur. But here I can really connect with each and every person at Mass.”
The church, which attracts people of all ages, is primarily made
up of families with young children. The median age is 37. Approximately 2,500
students are enrolled in the preschool and elementary religious education
classes and about 700 teenagers are involved in the ChrisTeen program. Last
year 92 people entered the church through the Order of Christian Initiation and
about 40 are now attending classes. Parishioners can become involved in more
than 65 active ministries. There is a full-service day care program, a
preschool and nursery, a restaurant-quality kitchen and library. Wellness
screenings are conducted regularly and the church even has its own
defibrillator.
People who are homebound can connect to the church’s web site
and hear the Mass. Visual images can be refreshed every 15 seconds. In the
future, the Mass will be shown in its entirety.
Transfiguration is a very generous parish, not only with its time
and talent, but also with treasure. Administrator Marilyn McGinnis has enjoyed
watching the “Giving Tree” grow each year.
“Our first one back in 1985 was just a small bare tree with
about 60 items on gift tags for people to take a tag, buy the item and return
it to us to deliver the gift,” she explained. “This past Christmas
parishioners brought in over 3,500 gifts, all beautifully and carefully
wrapped, to be delivered.”
“The outreach in this parish is encouraged from the
pulpit,” she said. “Our pastor believes we have been given many
blessings in our parish so we are called to reach out to others in turn.”
The parish has a deep commitment, both in terms of volunteer time
and financial support, to a sister parish in Belle Anse, Haiti, most recently
building a school there.
Rod Voss, director of liturgy and music, said that a number of
factors draw people to Transfiguration.
“This started out as a small, tight-knit parish, and as it
has grown Msgr. Pat has been adamant that we not lose that family model,”
he said. “So you will see before Mass begins that it’s like a big
family reunion. You will notice a lot of people talking and greeting each other
like they haven’t seen each other in years. That spirit begins in the
foyer, spills over into the sanctuary, then continues through into the
Mass.”
“Msgr. Bishop and the other priests are all dynamic homilists
who have the talent to slip past people’s expectations and through to
their hearts,” Voss said. “When people come here for the first time
they may expect to hear someone lecture. But our priests are not lecturers.
They share their life experiences and the Gospel in such a way as to help
people come to a personal connection to the Gospel message. That’s what
draws people in and makes them want to come back.”
Music and liturgy are tied together and fall under the leadership
of Voss and Rick Reed, assistant director. The choir sings at every Mass, using
the same music for all services except the Hispanic Mass. The choir includes
120 adults, 60 children and 20 Hispanic members. Members attend one of three
rehearsals each week and come to the Sunday Mass of their choice. Musicians
play keyboards, drums, bass guitar, guitar, flute and saxophone. Voss describes
the music as contemporary and said he originally was concerned that the style
might disenfranchise some older members of the parish.
“That was until one day when I was standing in the checkout
line at the grocery store and I saw this older woman looking at me. She left
her cart in the aisle and made a beeline right to me and said, ‘You
don’t know me, but I go to Transfiguration and I love the
music.’”
A liturgy committee meets monthly to discuss the upcoming
services. Voss and Reed select the music based on the Scripture readings and
discussions with the priests. The liturgy staff trains and schedules a roster
of 200 altar servers, 400 eucharistic ministers and 50 lectors. Each Mass has a
captain and assistant to whom others report.
“We’ve had some national level composers and liturgists
visit our parish and while they enjoyed the celebration of the Mass itself,
they marveled at the number of people that it takes to make everything look
effortless,” Voss said. “There are at least 20 people behind the
scenes at every Mass.”
The Hispanic community at Transfiguration is not a separate church
within the parish, but rather one part of the whole community.
“It is significant that we are all members of the same
community, but we celebrate in our own language,” said Father Rafael
Castaño, who served as a parochial vicar at Transfiguration for three
years. (He was recently transferred to Holy Cross Church, Atlanta, and newly
ordained Father Maxis St. Fleur took his place.) “I have experience in
several churches in Florida where there was a great division between the two
groups. It caused a lot of animosity.”
Since Father Castaño had witnessed the impact of
divisiveness, he was glad to find a like-minded pastor at Transfiguration.
Msgr. Bishop felt strongly that the church community should not be splintered,
as they are all one body in Christ. Father Castaño said that around 500
people regularly attend the Spanish Mass and many Hispanics attend the English
Masses.
The Parish Advisory Council has bilingual members and many
Hispanics work as bilingual sponsor couples for engaged couples, teach
religious education and serve as St. Vincent de Paul caseworkers. The church
sponsors an annual International Festival, potluck dinners after the Mass in
Spanish and celebrates holidays important to Hispanic parishioners.
The church has expanded its offerings in Spanish with the addition
of a full-time religious education coordinator for the Hispanic program,
Yolanda Berrios. This fall the parish began offering religious education
classes for Spanish-speaking children on Sundays. Father Castaño
explained that often the children of Hispanic households are fully bilingual,
but their parents have difficulty communicating with English-speaking
catechists, so having a dedicated program in Spanish will benefit children and
parents.
Father Eric Hill was assigned to Transfiguration following his
ordination in June 2000. He called his placement a “good match” and
parishioners agree. For the past year, Father Hill has been responsible for
marriage formation. “We have the reputation of being the hardest parish to
get married in,” he said, as he explained the church requires engaged
couples to complete a broad-based program.
“Our couples have to attend an Engaged Encounter weekend,
work with a sponsor couple, do
FOCCUS testing and meet several times with a priest,” he
said.
Father Hill is also chaplain to the Cobb County Adult Detention
Center in Marietta. He and a lay team minister there on a weekly basis. Father
Hill celebrates Mass at the center on Wednesdays and visits with inmates.
Also on the staff is Sister Celeste Schoppy, IHM, who has been
pastoral associate since August 1998. A certified spiritual director, her
priorities are spiritual direction, group and individual retreats and days of
reflection. Also a certified Catholic and ecumenical chaplain, Sister Schoppy
started a health and wellness program at the church, drawing from her
experience with hospitals and hospice.
“This is an area Msgr. Pat really wanted to develop here at
Transfiguration,” she said. “Through our program we try to emphasize
that all of the aspects of health need to be in harmony. The physical affects
the spiritual and a person’s faith life can affect their physical
health.”
Transfiguration provides health screenings, flu shots and seminars
on health and wellness.
“Because a number of our parishioners are caring for elderly
relatives, we recently invited representatives from various assisted living
organizations to speak about issues that are of concern to them,” she
said.
Sister Schoppy started the Good Mourning group, caregivers she
trained to work one-on-one with the recently bereaved for a year through
personal notes and calls. A bereavement support group meets monthly. She
arranges for the anointing of the sick, coordinates the Ministry of Caring,
which takes the Eucharist to the homebound, hospitalized and nursing home
residents, and coordinates the Family Crisis Response. These volunteers help
parishioners who need rides to hospitals, meals prepared or help with other
emergencies.
Part of keeping healthy is leading a balanced lifestyle.
Transfiguration’s full-time activity director Don Gale arranges trips for
parishioners to Braves games, museums, theater productions and other events.
“We have a very warm and welcoming spirit here, and after
we’ve prayed and studied and learned, we have a little time to play,”
said Gale. “We think of it as an extension of the community and the spirit
that prevails here.”
Msgr. Bishop’s pride and joy are the church’s day care
and preschool programs.
“Our nickname is TLC, which stands for Transfiguration Loving
Care,” said founding director Barbara Pieczko.
The church has sponsored a preschool for about 15 years, but added
the day care when the addition to the church building was completed four years
ago.
“Msgr. Pat had this dream of having day care here and he set
aside part of the building for the center. He wanted this dream to be a
reality,” Pieczko said.
“When a parent comes in to see about registering for
preschool and day care, they are happy to learn they can achieve it all in one
place. Most of the parents come to us because we are a church day care, but
others come because they’ve heard of our reputation. I’ve been told
there is a difference about TLC. People say they feel a sense of peace and love
when they come here.”
Because the Pieczko family is moving, Cindy Lippert has taken over
as child care and preschool director.
Religious education at Transfiguration is divided into three
areas: Preschool and Elementary (PEEP), ChrisTeen and Adult Education.
PEEP serves children from preschool through sixth grade with a
comprehensive curriculum designed to complement the parents’ role as
primary teacher of religious instruction. Preschool children are introduced to
their faith through the “Children of God” series. Grade-school
children follow a three-dimensional curriculum, “Walking by Faith.”
For fifth- and sixth-grade students, the curriculum is more discussion-based
and geared toward helping the youth to develop a firm foundation in their
faith.
“Many of our children are in the public schools and will be
challenged about their faith and why we do things a certain way. We try to help
them gain the knowledge they need to explain their faith to others,” said
Melissa Engels, PEEP director.
“Volunteers are the life blood of our program. We have over
250 volunteer catechists in our school of religion, many of whom have been
teaching for a number of years,” said Engels. “We are also blessed to
have some new people coming into the church through OCIA who are looking for a
way to share their new knowledge and faith experience.”
After sixth grade, the youth of the parish join the ChrisTeen
program, a comprehensive youth ministry designed to encourage parish teens to
grow and develop their faith and relationships with God and their community.
“Our program is a traditional catechetical program, where
teens attend grade-level classes equivalent to taking religion courses at a
Catholic high school,” said Youth Ministry Coordinator Joyce Guris.
Ninth- through 12th-grade students gather on Sunday evenings for
the 6 p.m. Mass and then attend classes from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Junior high
students attend classes on Wednesday evenings or Sunday afternoons.
“We try to reach out, teach and energize the whole child in
their relationship with Jesus Christ,” said Guris. “They need to know
what it means to be a young Catholic and they need to be able to articulate
their beliefs—not only what we believe, but why we believe it. This is
especially important in an area like Atlanta where their faith is so often
challenged.”
Transfiguration provides opportunities for the youth to live and
celebrate their faith through social activities and justice and service.
“Our teens have served rice and beans to the parish after
Mass on Ash Wednesday, made sandwiches for MUST ministries, served dinner at
homeless shelters, participated in a Hunger Walk, have read books to children
at Grady Hospital and played bingo with residents at area nursing homes. When
our teens learned MUST Ministries needed a furnace in order to serve more
people, they raised the needed $15,000. Kids love to be the hands and feet of
Christ,” said Guris.
There are 28 seventh- and eighth-grade and 28 high school peer
ministers, elected by all participants to be the liaison between the youth
ministry office and teens. The parish also has a mentoring program called
“Making Disciples” for 10th- through 12th-graders.
“Each of the teens is asked to pick a mentor,” she said.
“Sometimes the students choose someone who lives nearby and others ask us
to find a mentor for them. In lieu of classes three times a year the kids meet
with their mentors at church . . . The mentors and teens promise to pray for
one another daily and meet together three times a year. They can call or
communicate via e-mail in between.”
Adult education is headed by Rich Farenbach and the Order of
Christian Initiation for Adults and Children by Bill Garrity. Both of these
programs rely on teams of committed volunteers. The adult education committee
is comprised of 55-60 people who serve either as catechists or facilitators.
“Obviously the spectrum of needs in a parish of this size is
tremendous,” said Farenbach. “We try to address the needs not only of
the people coming back to the church after years away, but those people who
have always been active in their faith community.”
“Another Look at the Catholic Church” provides a forum
for people who have left the church to express their concerns and the stumbling
blocks that caused them to turn away. The church also offers Couple
Communication, a program geared toward strengthening the personal relationship
between spouses. OCIA and OCIC at Transfiguration are run by a team of
volunteers, including Garrity, who has headed up the program for about 12
years.
“We do things by the book,” said Garrity. “We have
six to 10 trained catechists who can lead the classes. We have set up a
six-week rotation with the catechists and I attend all the classes. This gives
the people who come a well-rounded look at how different people live out their
Catholic faith.”
A parish Congress of Representatives meets monthly to keep
everyone informed about the many goings on at Transfiguration. The church also
has an elected body of representatives for parish boards and committees in the
areas of finance, youth ministry, pastoral advisory and liturgy and spiritual
life.
“This is a parish where everyone’s contribution makes
the liturgy full—makes the parish full,” said Judy Gale.
“I’ve always felt this was a parish where everyone who comes has a
part in the whole. They are the whole. People feel they are empowered to do
what they can. The concept of ‘time, talent and treasure’ really
works here. People take that very seriously.” |
