Print Issue: August 22, 2002

Parish Rapidly Growing St. James The Apostle Celebrates New Church

Archbishop John F. Donoghue anoints the altar in the new sanctuary of St. James the Apostle. Altar server Jonas Smith carries the crucifix in front of members of the Knights of Columbus during the dedication ceremony of St. James the Apostle, McDonough, on July 12. (Photos by Ken Melvin/Archdiocese of Atlanta)

By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

MCDONOUGH - For the past 20 years, Pete Sposaro has been a volunteer at St. James the Apostle Church in McDonough, doing maintenance work ranging from hauling in a rectory to laying sheetrock on the walls. And as a member of the church for "nearly twice" that time, Sposaro finds it "overwhelming" to worship in its newly dedicated church and to begin a second career in retirement as the first paid maintenance coordinator.

A Pittsburgh native who moved to Atlanta in 1958, he's amazed by the growth of his parish on Atlanta's south side - which had about 35 people when he signed up - and of the whole archdiocese.

"I saw two dedications, the dedication of the first one and the dedication for this expansion. It's really overwhelming because we've been here all that time. There wasn't even a building when we first came (to the current site), now there's 1,300 plus families," he said. "I remember when we would go to church in the back of a police station set up for Mass every Sunday" when the original church, now the parish hall, was being built on the church grounds.

Located in the sixth fastest growing county in the United States, Henry County, and having more than doubled in size in the past six years, St. James Parish couldn't wait another hour for dedication day of its new church building. In fact, the congregation is already on the verge of outgrowing its new facility, and may eventually begin phase II of expansion. On July 12, the Mass of dedication was held and was presided at by Archbishop John F. Donoghue. Bill Herbert, chairman of the building committee, presented plans to the archbishop and David Norris, chairman of the capital fund drive, gave him the keys to the new church.

Msgr. Terry Young, who has been pastor of St. James for a year, noted that former pastor Msgr. Henry Gracz had been the priest-in-charge of leading the building project as well as building a new church for its mission, St. Mary's in Jackson, while he took the reins for "the settling in phase."

"I think it's good for the parish community to finally have a kind of permanent home that has enough space to deal with the growth of the parish at this point. We are growing rapidly. We're the only Catholic Church in Henry County and this is one of the most rapidly growing counties. I look forward in the next few years to exploring the possibility of another parish here" in Henry County, he said.

With the expansion, St. James has more space for worship. The new church seats 650 compared to 350 in the old one. But there are still space constraints even now. "We are still strained in other areas like religious education," said Msgr. Young. "It's got other challenges on the horizon."

Sister Mary Jane Stapleton, RSM, is the director of religious education for St. James the Apostle.

The new church made of white stone block was built between the existing church and the parish religious education building, and they now all connect. The former church and parish hall building was renovated into one large parish hall, which also serves as the main entrance to the church, and has the parish's first commercial grade kitchen. Rooms with dividers to create six new classrooms were added to the religious education building as well as an administrative wing for parish offices. Two hundred parking spaces were also added, and the church has 15 acres of land to provide room for further expansion. The former administrative offices were located in a house on the property that was torn down during construction, during which office staff temporarily moved into trailers.

The church has a modern look from the exterior with large glass windows, copper colored accents against the white block and doors with angels made of sculptured fiberglass. Inside, it is light and welcoming with a dark green tile floor, pale and hunter green altar cloths, wooden pews and a crucifix, and a long, narrow skylight running up the front and back wall of the church and down the center of the very high, arched ceiling. There are tapestries hung of St. James and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to whom the archbishop consecrated the archdiocese last year. "It's very open and welcoming church. I think everybody involved in it, all the parishioners, are very happy. It's a very functional. We could always use more space," Herbert said. "We built a building we can afford and it's worked out very well . . . It's really more than a lot of people thought we could even do and it's amazing how fast it filled up."

Designers were Acanthus Architects of Asheville, N.C., and general contractor was the Potts Co. of Conyers. Money was raised for the $3.8 million project through parish fund raising.

St. James was established as a mission of Sacred Heart in Griffin, served by the Redemptorists. The first Mass was celebrated in 1943 and as the congregation grew, they moved into the McDonough Masonic Hall Building in 1959. In 1966 arrangements were made to purchase the land on which the church now stands, and in 1967 construction began on the new facility. On Jan. 1, 1969 the first Mass was celebrated in what is now the parish hall. The new church was dedicated by Archbishop Thomas Donnellan in 1971, and ground-breaking for the present church was held in October 1999.

Herbert explained that construction of the new church took longer than normal because builders made special accommodations to allow the congregation to keep worshipping in their old worship space until the new one was completed. "There were points when we would come in on Sunday and there would be sheets of plastic in the sanctuary because they were renovating behind us on Monday."

Parishioners of St. James the Apostle gratefully take part in the church dedication. Even with construction, Mass continued at the site through the entire building process for almost three years.

Herbert explained that a possible phase II of construction would include adding more classrooms, a gymnasium and expanding the church to seat 1,100. "We built that church and we're almost at capacity already," he said.

Msgr. Terry Young, now pastor at St. James, McDonough, took over the reins of the church building from Msgr. Henry Gracz.

The chairman said that committee members began meeting in 1997 to plan the project. He said they would go every Saturday to look at different churches to figure out the needs of their congregation, and that it was a great help to have Msgr. Gracz to guide them with his building experience. The circulation manager at The Rockdale Citizen, Herbert had no experience with building projects when he was asked to take on the project. "I think they knew if I took on the project I would stick with it. I had no experience in building it, but down here I have a lot of experience in managing people and multiple tasks."

Herbert, a 16-year member, now serves on the parish council in addition to being very active in the Knights of Columbus. "You have fellowship with these people and these people you care about and they care about you. Singing and praying with somebody you have a pretty strong relationship with him."

Msgr. Young said that in the fall the church will focus on building member participation through various parish activities like "aggressive reestablishment of small faith communities established during RENEW 2000 and expanding that" and "expanding our adult formation."

And at 67 Sposaro looks forward to many more years helping maintain the life of the parish in his new job. "I just thank God for my health, (that) I can get around and do stuff," he said. "When I retired from my job I'd been working 30 years, I told my wife I wanted to spend my extra time at the church volunteering anyway."

Cass Catroppa, left, and Meg Atkinson both work in the church office. Atkinson is parish secretary and has worked for St. James for the past two years, and Catroppa, pastoral administrator, for the past two and half. The two women, plus about six others, including the pastors and religious education director, worked in a construction trailer while the new church was being built, watching the project literally from the ground up. "It was cozy," Atkinson said. "You had to be very flexible."