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By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer
ROSWELL—St. Peter Chanel Church has come a long way in a
short time. The parish community, which began in 1998 as a mission of the
Church of St. Ann in Marietta, has celebrated Masses in two separate school
cafeterias, but now has a place to call its own. And the parishioners and their
pastor, Father Frank McNamee, couldn’t be more thrilled.
There was standing room only Dec. 1 as Archbishop John F. Donoghue
celebrated a Mass of dedication for the Archbishop Donoghue Pastoral Center,
and then instituted perpetual adoration at St. Peter Chanel Church.
Those who attended the Mass at the growing parish were greeted by
sounds of Atlanta’s Marist School band, representing the Marist order of
which the church’s namesake, St. Peter Chanel, was a member.
A dozen priests helped Father McNamee concelebrate the Mass, which
coincided with the fourth anniversary of the church’s first Sunday Mass,
when it was celebrated in the cafeteria of nearby North Roswell Elementary
School.
Following an opening prayer, co-chairs of the building committee,
Rich McHugh and Bob Riddell, as well as Jean Rearick, the first chairperson,
who had moved away during construction and has now returned to the parish,
presented the archbishop with the church’s building plans. The temporary
sanctuary will later become a fellowship hall as the church grows, and a new,
permanent sanctuary is constructed.
During the homily, the archbishop recalled his first visit to the
church for its groundbreaking in June 2000. He said it was then that he took
the prayers of the parish into his own prayers, asking God for a safe
completion of the building project.
“Now, these prayers have been answered—our hopes
fulfilled, our faith rewarded,” he said. “This building, which you
have so graciously named in my honor, a gesture I will remember all my
life—this building will now become the home for your spiritual
lives—for the worship of God in the fellowship of Jesus Christ, for the
imparting knowledge and wisdom of their Holy Sprit, and for the growing
salvation in your souls—the souls of men, women and children, for this and
for many generations yet to come.”
Archbishop Donoghue spoke of the significance of the date of the
dedication and said that the event was symbolic of the words in the first
reading from Isaiah, (2:2) ‘In the days to come, the mountain of the
Lord’s house shall be established ... all nations shall stream towards it,
and many peoples shall come...”
The church is more than a “lifeless structure,” the
archbishop said.
“Rather, it is the captured energy of our lives, the
expression of our love, the living sign of our hope and our faith, and the holy
ground where we meet our Lord, where we meet Him with as much reality as when
He sat down to supper with His friends, with as much affection as when He
reached out to touch and heal all who came to Him sick and burdened, with as
much obedience, as when Peter said to Him, ‘Where shall we go but to you,
Lord ... for you have the words of everlasting life.’”
“You, the people of St. Peter Chanel, are to be embraced with
the gratitude of the whole Church—not because you have built a building,
fine as it is—but because you have faith, you have hope, and you have
enough love in your hearts, to accept the invitation of Christ, the Lord, to
meet Him, here in this place, and to put into action, into life, all that he
has taught us to do.”
Before the Liturgy of the Eucharist, Father Tim Hepburn, chaplain
of Blessed Trinity High School, which shares its property with St. Peter Chanel
and Queen of Angels Elementary School, Father Joe Corbett, pastor of St. Brigid
Church in Alpharetta, and Father Paul Burke, chaplain at Our Lady of Mercy High
School in Fairburn, lit candles around the church.
After Communion, Father McNamee removed a host from the
tabernacle, placing it into a gold monstrance on the altar. As the congregation
knelt, the archbishop, covered by a gold awning held aloft by four
parishioners, made his way with the monstrance to Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Chapel to institute perpetual adoration at the parish.
At the end of the Mass co-chair McHugh praised the pastor.
“Without Father Frank’s vision and guidance and
decision-making skills, this building would not have been possible,” he
said, as parishioners responded with a standing ovation for their pastor.
In an interview, McHugh also offered his gratitude to the
parishioners.
“I was proud of all the people who contributed. There were a
lot of different people in the parish who pitched in besides just the
(building) committee themselves,” he said. “It was really a community
effort.”
Though many of the numerous ministries at St. Peter Chanel have
benefited from the new space, office manager Debbie Moore said the staff is
“thrilled” with the building, having previously crammed into small
quarters at the rectory.
“It’s just been wonderful to have our own area,”
she said. “We look around this space and we can look back and say,
‘wow, how did we survive?’”
Moore said she has been impressed by the tremendous growth at the
parish.
“It’s been amazing,” she said. “I remember
when I first started putting (family) number 338 into the computer (for
registration), and I just put in number 1,100 this week. We’ve never been
lacking for something to do. We’re always growing. This is a good
place.”
Designed by Atlanta architects Preston Phillips Inc., and built by
contractor Dudley Barrett of Alpharetta, the church is part of a $6 million
project that includes the land and future permanent church, which is set to be
completed in the next five years.
The temporary church includes seating for 700 people, with the
later permanent church to hold 1,500 people. The building features a youth
lounge, youth office, administrative offices and 10 classrooms.
Father McNamee plans to begin a capital campaign in 2003 to raise
money for the permanent church. But for now, his prayer is that the parish will
continue in the direction in which it is already headed.
“I hope that we just keep focused on what we’re
doing-that we grow as a parish and continue to meet the needs of our parish and
our people and to minister to those in our community.” |
