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By Betty Schoenbachler, Special To The Bulltein
ATLANTA—Tucked beneath beautiful old-growth hardwoods and
towering pines in northeast Atlanta is Our Lady of the Assumption Church,
parish home to Catholic families for the past 50 years.
This community in the Brookhaven area, which has always had a
Catholic school on its grounds, is known for its welcoming spirit to guests and
newcomers, the tireless and invaluable work of its laity, and the Marist
priests who serve there. This is a spiritually mature parish that draws
boundless energy from its youth, as well as wisdom and knowledge from its older
members. Their combined experiences have created a place of worship that many
are proud to call their parish home.
OLA began its jubilee ceremonies with an anniversary celebration
on Aug. 15, the feast of Our Lady of the Assumption. Father Dennis Steik,
provincial of the Atlanta Province of the Marists, was the celebrant and
homilist.
On Oct. 26, the congregation marked the anniversary with a Mass
and Benedic-tion celebrated by Archbishop John F. Donoghue, followed by a
dinner and dance. OLA School will continue to celebrate the 50th anniversary in
2002.
Established in 1951 by the bishop of the Diocese of
Savannah-Atlanta, Bishop Gerald O’Hara, Msgr. Joseph E. Moylan was the
first pastor. The church and school were built on 10 acres of land purchased by
the diocese in Oglethorpe Estates. Early services were held at the old Lawson
General Hospital and later in the auditorium of the Jim Cherry School.
“Catholic education has been a part of this parish from the
beginning and the first building constructed was the school,” said Father
James F. McGoldrick, SM, the pastor. The ground floor of the school was used
for Mass until the current church was built in 1957.
OLA was staffed by diocesan priests until 1965, a few years after
Marist School moved from downtown Atlanta to its Ashford-Dunwoody Road site.
That year the Archdiocese of Atlanta exchanged parishes, taking on
Marist-founded Sacred Heart Church downtown, while the Marists assumed pastoral
care of OLA.
“We like to say that we’re a friendly parish,” said
Father McGoldrick. “Since we are 50 years old, we do have an older group
of parishioners who know each other pretty well. We have some people who have
been here 30, 40 or even 50 years and their children went through our school.
We also are getting a number of young families with children coming into our
parish as well.”
Parishioners go out of their way to make guests and newcomers feel
welcome. The church has a welcoming committee whose members personally contact
all newly registered parishioners as well as host a welcome breakfast after the
9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Masses on the first Sunday of each month. On the fourth
Sunday, the parish council provides coffee and doughnuts after Mass in the
plaza area outside the church doors.
“There are no strangers here,” said Rita O’Brien,
the retired director of religious education. “We have greeters at every
Mass and you would literally have to walk away to escape them. This is a very
warm parish. It’s easy to make friends here.”
“This is a terrific place to serve,” she added.
“The Marists have a particular charism of developing leadership from among
the laity . . . and spread out leadership and administrative roles among
parishioners.”
OLA also has a large music program that involves many talented
singers and musicians. The director of music, Gregg Codelli, coordinates the
church choir, 16 cantors and the contemporary ensemble. His wife, Natalie,
leads the children’s choir.
“We have one choir that sings at the 11 o’clock Mass.
Their range includes all types of music, from Gregorian chants to
contemporary,” Codelli said.
The contemporary ensemble includes several singers and musicians
who play bass, piano, guitar and drums. The choir has joined other Brookhaven
area churches for Advent and Easter ecumenical services as well as an Easter
sunrise service at Oglethorpe University.
Mrs. Codelli started the children’s choir five years ago.
There are currently 20 children in two groups: cherub choir, grades 1-3, and
youth choir, grades 4-7. The children lead the musical prayer for one Mass each
month.
“I didn’t want this to be a performance for the kids,
where they come out and sing one song before the congregation,” said Mrs.
Codelli. “I challenged every child in the children’s choir and
reminded them that they are leaders of song. Music is their special ministry .
. . You don’t have to be in your 20s to be in ministry. You can do it when
you are 8.”
HEART OF CHURCH
The heart of the church is a program called “Christ Renews
His Parish,” a long-standing program that began 22 years ago, said
O’Brien.
“Christ Renews is similar to a Cursillo weekend, but both men
and women can make the retreat at the same time. The program is put on entirely
by parishioners who have made the weekend. It has a life of its own and keeps
regenerating,” said Father McGoldrick.
Usually held on the last weekend in February, the program begins
on a Friday night and runs all day on Saturday, and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Sunday.
“It’s a retreat, but people go home at night,” he
said. “A lot of our parish leadership comes out of this weekend.”
“Christ Renews is open to anyone in the parish 18 years of
age and older,” said Helen Heil, a parishioner since 1965. “It is a
joyful weekend, a spiritual weekend. There is laughter and tears. Participants
hear talks from several people who witness about their spiritual life, renewal,
Scripture and community. The people eat all their meals here and we make
arrangements for baby sitters. We celebrate Mass together and the Blessed
Sacrament is exposed in the chapel from Friday evening through the end of the
weekend. Many people from the parish sign up to be with the (Blessed) Sacrament
while we are busy with the people attending the weekend.”
From OLA, “Christ Renews His Parish” has spread to other
Atlanta area churches.
“When you have a good program, you hate to keep it to
yourself,” Heil said. “We have a team from our parish who have helped
get this started at Good Shepherd in Cumming and St. Joseph’s in
Marietta.”
INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
Over the past year, OLA has opened its doors to a thriving
Catholic Indonesian community, who are now becoming a permanent part of the
parish. Anywhere from 150 to 200 people come regularly.
“About a year ago, a few Indonesians came to ask if they
could use our facilities for Mass,” said Father McGoldrick. “The
group would fly Father Mariano da Silva, SVD, an Indonesian priest, in from
Washington, D.C., once a month for Mass. Recently they’ve started having
Masses twice a month, on the first and third Sundays with different
priests.”
“We approached Father Jim at OLA and he accepted us,”
said Antonius Anugerah, the group’s spokesman. “We’re very happy
to belong to this parish. They’ve been very generous to us.”
The group’s Sundays at OLA begin with a luncheon or youth
activity at noon and then Mass is celebrated at 2 p.m. This is followed by a
social gathering from 4 to 7 p.m.
The group communicates via flyers, e-mail and their web site:
http://kki-atlanta.faithweb.com
“It’s wonderful to watch their community grow,”
said Marlene McHale, parish secretary. “They are a very kind group of
people and we’re very happy to have them here. They have their own
offertory separate from the parish and are using that to build their community
and for expenses, like flying in Father Mariano and other Indonesian
priests.”
Robert Rivers, the director of religious education, has worked
with several Indonesians who joined the church through the RCIA program. Their
children are enrolled in the OLA religious education classes.
“They are a very active group and I’ve been fortunate to
work with them. Last year we had four Indonesians come into the church. We had
that service on the first Sunday in May when Father Mariano was in town. I was
honored to serve as a sponsor for two of them.”
RCIA is just one aspect of religious education directed by Rivers,
but it is one of his favorites. An Atlanta native, he joined the staff just 18
months ago.
“I had a huge void to fill when I came here because Rita
O’Brien had been the DRE for many years and she was phenomenal,”
Rivers said. “The people here are very supportive and go out of their way
to let you know things are going well. There is a real sense of community here
— they are a close-knit group. I felt right at home from day one.”
Besides the RCIA program, Rivers directs a religious education
program that is provided for nearly 100 students from kindergarten through
eighth grade. OLA currently has about 35 small Christian communities, many of
which grew out of RENEW 2000 and continue to meet regularly. He offers a
topic-based Bible study on Wednesday afternoons, which is attended by retired
people, stay-at-home parents, and parents who come to pick their children up
from school.
YOUTH MINISTRY VIBRANT
Anne Stephens is the youth minister and works with both middle and
high school students. The church has developed its own teen-age ministry based
on the Lectionary. The program centers on the Eucharist and seeks to create an
environment that helps the youth strengthen their relationship with God through
Jesus Christ and His church.
The youth at OLA are the “now of the parish, not just the
future,” said Stephens, who has been a part of the parish herself since
she was 2.
“A lot of the older people here really reach out to our kids.
They know them by their names and by what they do,” she said.
“Recently the OLA Players put on a dinner theater and asked the teens from
the youth ministry to serve as ushers and servers because they wanted them to
be a part of the OLA Players’ community. They treated the kids with
respect and then surprised us by donating some of the proceeds from their
production to the youth group.”
For the past several years Stephens has taken the teens to a
retreat at St. Bernard Abbey in Alabama, where she has a good friend who is a
Benedictine monk. Both middle and high school students who come take part in
the activities at the abbey, including vespers and Stations of the Cross.
“The monks talk to the kids and lead them in prayers,”
she said. “This is more of a contemplative retreat. We leave all the
homework and sports and problems back in Atlanta and center ourselves on God.
The teens are given a journal that we bound ourselves. We have talks and then
send them away for quiet time to journal. Our big rule at the monastery is that
if a monk comes up and wants to talk, we drop everything. That is an experience
I don’t want them to miss out on.”
The next retreat is planned for the Martin Luther King Day
weekend, so the youth can stay at the monastery for an additional night.
Parishioner Terry Gregerson volunteers with the youth and is also
involved in the newly formed Body and Soul outreach, a care ministry for the
parish. The ministry is comprised of a group of nurses who conduct screenings
and health-related seminars at the church.
“I have never experienced anything like this parish,”
Gregerson said. “I had been involved in other churches before, but
it’s different here. They empower you to do more. I work with the teens
and find them to be very warm and loving, very accepting. Whenever someone new
comes, you don’t have to tell the teens to reach out to the newcomers
— they always do it.”
One likely reason for this is the OLA welcoming spirit, carried
through from the youngest to the oldest members of the parish.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
That extends to others in the community as well. Parishioners at
OLA give generously of their time and talent. Some of the outreach programs in
which the church is involved include AIDS ministry, Habitat for Humanity, Meals
on Wheels, Peace and Justice, and St. Vincent de Paul.
The self-named “Soupremes” meet Monday evenings in the
parish hall kitchen from November through March to prepare meals for the
Central Night Shelter in downtown Atlanta. In addition, the Ministry of Care
serves the needs of the sick and elderly in the parish, by visiting the
homebound,
the hospitals and nursing homes, bringing them the Eucharist and
leading prayers.
The St. Vincent de Paul Council is especially active at OLA.
President Ed Rhodes said the church has about 32 active and 60 associate
members involved in the ministry. The church has a building that serves as a
food pantry for the organization.
“When Sister Carolyn Oberkirch of the Sisters of Mercy was
still here at OLA, she did a lot of work that overlapped with St. Vincent de
Paul,” he said. “When we built the building on the grounds, it was
decided to name the building by using a combination of the names Mercy and
Vincent, so it is called ‘Mervin.’”
“Our parish does a fabulous job of keeping Mervin stocked
with foods. Once or twice a month members of our group go shopping to stock
hotdogs, ground beef and other groceries. The OLA School is very good about
helping us out. The school sponsors a drive each month to stock one item; for
example, one month all the students brought in new toothbrushes,” said
Rhodes.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays, St. Vincent de Paul has volunteers who
answer the telephone and take calls from people who need help paying their rent
or other bills such as prescription medications and utilities. Volunteers will
usually bring food from Mervin when they go to meet with the callers to see how
St. Vincent de Paul can help meet their physical, and sometimes spiritual,
needs.
SCHOOL, PARISH, TOGETHER
The school’s involvement in the church extends beyond Mervin.
Opened in the fall of 1952 with 176 students from kindergarten through fifth
grade, by 1957 the school had grown to 652 students and by the late 1960s, the
number reached 1,000. After going through the accreditation process with the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1971, class sizes were reduced.
Currently 510 students are enrolled in 4-year-old preschool through eighth
grade.
The school had a building expansion in the late 1990s, adding
Mercy Hall and the Chanel Conference Center, dedicated to honor the Sisters of
Mercy and the Marist patron, St. Peter Chanel. This added two computer labs,
resource rooms, a science lab, kindergarten classroom, media center and a
conference room. Additional renovation this past summer added office space and
a counseling center.
Principal Joan Tiernan has spent her entire career in Catholic
education, most at OLA. She joined the staff in 1979 and has been principal for
nine years.
“I think what makes this school unique is a carryover from
when the Sisters of Mercy were here,” she said. “I think their
mystique is still around even though we have no Religious sisters anymore. I do
believe that our lay teachers are doing a wonderful job at meeting both the
academic and spiritual needs of our students. If anything, we work harder to
make sure that this is a school where parents want to send their children for
their spiritual development.”
When Father McGoldrick became pastor at OLA, he was instrumental
in implementing the very vibrant reconciliation services at the school three
times a year.
“We sent letters to every parish from which our children are
members and invite their priests to come and celebrate reconciliation with
us,” said Tiernan. “Over the last couple of years, we have had as
many as 16 to 18 parish priests coming to our services . . . We have priests
who come from across town to share this time with us, as well as the Marist
priests. The kids have a choice if they want to go to their parish
priests.”
While new facilities and a strong learning environment are
important, spiritual development of children “is our primary purpose for
being here,” she said.
Another of the school’s noteworthy programs is the Peace
Patrol.
“One of the things every school is subject to is
bullying,” said Tiernan. “Five years ago, we implemented the Peace
Patrol, a program based out of San Francisco. We brought in a group of people
to train us in how to use the program. Students in grades fifth through eighth
can be members. We had over 100 students apply and had to use an interview
process to bring the numbers down to 28. The students are trained in the Peace
Patrol motto, which is conflict resolution. During recess duty, the Peace
Patrol members monitor the playground, not to tattle, but to see if they can
solve any conflicts that come up.”
In 2002, there are plans to break ground for a new church building
to better meet the needs of OLA’s growing community. |
