Print Issue: November 7, 2002

St. Thomas More Realizes Dream Of Enhanced Church, School

Members of the Knights of Columbus, Father Thomas O'Reilly Council, prepare to enter St. Thomas More Church, Decatur, from the parish's new narthex. The parish celebrated the completion of its new building expansion project with an Oct. 26 Mass of dedication. (Photos by Michael Alexander)

By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

DECATUR - A season of mud, construction barriers, parking problems and playground-less children has dissolved at St. Thomas More Church into the realization of a parish vision.

Enduring a year of physical inconveniences and disruption, the parish completed a $5 million expansion, adding 15,000 square feet to the church and building a 22,000-square-foot multipurpose center for St. Thomas More schoolchildren and the parish.

People were "just astounded," said Dr. Cyndy Fordyce, president of the parish council, who with other council members gave tours of the renovated, expanded church on dedication weekend Oct. 26-27.

"They saw how wonderful it is going to be, and how with the changes made, this church has become more user-friendly."

Beginning in 1996 parish leaders began developing a vision to make the church more accessible, add a day chapel, provide more facilities for the school and give the school a more secure front entrance, Fordyce said.

Although parishioners endured a lot during construction, the church now has a new narthex and gathering area, a day chapel and much greater accessibility and convenience for the elderly and those with disabilities.

And after playing basketball and other games outside in the school parking lot with two hoops for decades, students at St. Thomas More School can dribble with fresh zeal during their PE classes in their first-ever gymnasium.

They saw it together for the first time in a school assembly where they prayed and cheered.

"Their faces were priceless. We've never had such a big space before. We opened it up by praying and sharing. It was very exciting," said principal Gail Msezane, who's worked at the school for 19 years. "It's always been a dream."

The new gym is brightened with the K-8 school's navy and yellow colors and also has a stage, where the annual musical and assemblies can now be held instead of in the cafeteria. "Parents will now be able to see their children performing instead of just . . . hearing their voices," Msezane said.

Jim Girard is glad to help bring the gift to the children, as he has two children at the school and chaired the building committee for the project.

"We really have the very best students and teachers. We just wanted the space to serve our kids because they're such neat kids . . . We're not trying to add to our staff and student body. We want to be able to give them the space that they deserve so we're very excited. We've sort of been bursting at the seams in every direction, every closet was in use."

The school and 1,400-family church are tightly intertwined both physically and in spirit and will share the new space, as they work closely together and are located on a small plot in a comforting, small town Decatur neighborhood.

The new multipurpose building with the gym is called the Notre Dame de Namur Center, in honor of the sisters who founded the school in 1950 and staffed it until withdrawing in 2000. Lined with large old photographs of former basketball teams, student 9/11 reflections and self-portraits and words of gratitude for the new facilities, it also contains music and band rooms as well as an art room, moving that class out of the rectory.

The project also involved enlarging and remodeling the school's administrative offices and giving it a front entrance for the first time. And the buildings are now all connected.

"There's less shared space and we can give our kids more quality space to learn in," Girard continued.

For the church, "We've increased accessibility for our elderly parishioners with the new (driveway) and handicapped parking right in front of the church."

In the past, churchgoers who parked in the main parking lot behind St. Thomas More had to climb steps to get to the church. Before there were only a few handicapped spaces behind the church.

Now there is a driveway with parking spaces right in front of the church and people who park in the back lot have an elevator to reach the church without having to climb steps. There are also new restrooms by the narthex; before one had to go down stairs to get to them.

"Christ calls us to community and if somebody is somehow incapable of experiencing community, we're not serving that person both in terms of Mass and other parish gatherings," Fordyce said. "I think there were situations which people would choose not to participate in just because it was difficult to get there." Now the church "really offers good accessibility for anyone who is mobility-challenged."

A church and school celebration were held Oct. 26 at the Mass of dedication celebrated by Archbishop John F. Donoghue. He told the Saturday Mass-goers at the 61-year-old parish that they were united by the Holy Spirit in their work. "You have been enabled, by the Holy Spirit, to bring about this remarkable and beautiful change in the physical realities of your parish - you have remodeled the house, and this old house, today, gives way in the best way possible, to this new house - old in its foundation and character, but young now in its look, its expanded spirit of invitation, and its increased accessibility."

He recognized parish priests, especially pastor Father Frank Richardson and former pastor Father Pat Mulhern, for their leadership, and the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, from whom came "so much of the conviction upon which this parish stands - not of itself, but out of and upon the unifying love of Jesus Christ."

As with the project at St. Thomas More, the archbishop said that "every good deed, every noble act, every inspired vision, every dream worth coming true, finds its origin and is justified by these two commandments - that we must love God above all, and that we must love our neighbor."

He spoke of the sadness some may feel with the ending of a community building project and that some have not lived to see it come to fruition. Yet "that unity God gives us to keep - it will not cease with today's ceremony, but will continue to bind us together as brothers and sisters, forever,'' he said. "Let us pass beneath these portals, these new and revived portals, knowing certainly, that in going in, we go in to love the Lord our God, and to love Him with everything that we are - and that in going forth, we will, today and forevermore, go forth, to love our neighbor, and to carry to our neighbor, the love we have received today."

The construction project was funded by parish and school families. The general contractor was Hamby Construction Co. of Lawrenceville and Marvin Kilgo of Bull, Brown & Kilgo architects AIA of Atlanta designed it. Girard said the project was completed "this morning" and took about 14 months.

Also among the many project contributors from the parish and school communities were artist and member Dorri Thayne, who made icons of the Holy Family and a Madonna, and gave artistic advice, and Father Methodius Telnack, OCSO, of the Monastery of Holy Spirit in Conyers, who made the stained glass window above the narthex. It has eucharistic symbols of a chalice, grapes and bread and on the window perimeter the four evangelist symbols from the Book of Revelation of an eagle, lion, ox and man. "It's meant to be an introduction to the eucharistic chapel there . . . to introduce them to the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist."

Girard noted the importance of having a narthex to provide the parish a gathering space to socialize in before and after Mass while keeping the sanctuary more quiet and reverent. "The sanctuary itself where Mass is conducted should be and is a most reverent place in the church . . . This will encourage us to create more respect for the sanctuary itself."

Girard has found the work "very rewarding, a joy" to lead the project and to build up the school.

"It's really a terrific school. The faculty . . . they're very dedicated. Parent participation is 100 percent. It's just a real dedicated group of people to the school and church," he said.

Msezane said that "we've had the programs" even with the ongoing struggle for space, but now teachers can do all the things they want to do in the classrooms. And it's improved safety as "kindergarten doesn't have to go out in the rain for lunch; we're all connected." She described their multicultural body of 455 students. She said many come from families associated with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Emory University for whom "education is really important."

Notre Dame Sister Margaret Mary McKeon, who came to the school just six months after it opened and served over 15 years as principal and teacher, came from Brooklyn, N.Y., for the dedication. She recalled when there were no lower school classrooms and said when the convent was being constructed sisters slept in classrooms. After the sisters left the convent was gutted and parish offices were relocated there from the rectory.

"I've seen a lot of additions. Father Pat (Mulhern) started the ball rolling," she recalled. "It brightens up my life. It's a very warm place. I just love it and in all the years I was here I never heard any of the sisters saying we don't like STM School, even though we were far away from our parents."

She commented on how in the South schools are opening and the church is growing, while in the Northeast schools are closing.

"It's a beautiful place and the parish is full of life and I note that more now because of the parish I'm in . . . We have no school and the parish is dying, there are hardly any people left."

Sister Grace O'Connor, who taught for 13 years at the school and now lives in New Castle, Del., added, "It's nice to see all the improvements and I know the school is doing well and it will continue to. It really rewards what they've done here . . . When you have a nice building it encourages the children to do better in their school work."

Father Richardson credits Father Mulhern for being "instrumental in raising funds and being a good steward." After the current pastor came to the church in 1999 renovation began on the convent. He is grateful for the congregation's consistent attendance and financial support during the construction period. The parish will also use the gym for basketball and volleyball and St. Peter Claver Regional School in Decatur will also utilize it.

While the parish already has weekly adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, he hopes to begin perpetual adoration in the new chapel during Lent.

"The project has turned out far nicer than I ever anticipated. The architect was outstanding. His finished product was really good," he said. And his flock deserves it, as "truly it is a wonderful parish. We've got a wonderful mix of nationalities and backgrounds."

The new narthex at St. Thomas More Church lights up the night sky on West Ponce de Leon Avenue in Decatur. The new multipurpose building known as the Notre Dame de Namur Center contains a gymnasium with a performing arts stage, a band and music room, an art room, and storage space for equipment. Notre Dame de Namur Sisters Margaret Mary McKeon, left, and Grace O'Connor, center, enjoy a moment with St. Thomas More School third-grade teacher Romana Khalaf. Sister McKeon served at the school for 17 years as a first-grade teacher and principal. Sister O'Connor was the sixth-grade teacher for Kalaf, who came to the school in the first grade as an Italian immigrant unable to speak English. Archbishop John F. Donoghue leads the blessing of the new gymnasium, which makes up a portion of the 22,000-square-foot multipurpose center. Assisting the archbishop throughout the blessings were altar servers Martin Rodriguez, who held the prayer book, and his brother Matt, who held the holy water. (Front row, l-r) Frank and Mary Shoemaker and Notre Dame de Namur Sisters Grace O'Connor and Margaret Mary McKeon say the Our Father during the Mass of dedication at St. Thomas More Church, Decatur, Oct. 26. Msgr. Hugh Marren, far left, pastor of St. Benedict Church, Duluth, joins Father Frank Richardson, far right, pastor of St. Thomas More Church, as Archbishop John F. Donoghue conducts the prayer of blessing inside the new parish narthex.