New Chapel At Cancer Home Provides Peace

By ERIKA ANDERSON, Staff Writer

Published: November 6, 2003

ATLANTA—There is a quiet haven located at the corner of Pollard Boulevard and Little Street.

Amid the downtown streets that sometimes numb the senses, it is a place for quiet contemplation, a beacon of peace and quiet.

Thanks to the dedicated service of the Club Estates Garden Club of Brookhaven, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cancer Home now has an outdoor Meditation Chapel.

The simple, timber frame structure, which houses the home’s enormous bronze and oak crucifix, was dedicated on Oct. 28 by Archbishop John F. Donoghue.

Members of the Club Estates Garden Club and the Auxiliary of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Home, as well as the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne who serve at the home, gathered together on the chilly fall day to celebrate their completed vision.

Mary Welch Rogers led the music for the service, during which various club members read passages from Scripture.

Debbie Proctor, master gardener for the Club Estates Garden Club, designed the schematic design of the Meditation Chapel, which she called the garden club’s “most ambitious project.”

The Club Estates Garden Club of Brookhaven has been supporting OLPH Home since 1946. The group has raised money for and installed many landscape projects designed to enhance the natural beauty of the home’s grounds and to bring joy to the patients, their families and to the home’s sisters and staff.

Proctor’s designs for the chapel were professionally rendered by architect Sarlen Barber and Jack Weems, structural engineer, in conjunction with local timber frame expert Mike Goldberg of Wild Goose Projects in Woodstock.

Constructed in the centuries-old timber frame style, the chapel utilizes stout posts and beams, shaped at their connections to lock together using wooden pegs. It resembles a traditional lych-gate, historically an entrance into a churchyard symbolizing the transition from the secular world into the spiritual. Moveable teak benches, not yet installed, will be placed inside for visitors.

The focal point, the crucifix, is mounted onto a granite base, and at night, the chapel will be illuminated.

Funding for the project was done over three years, with the Club Estates group holding annual luncheons and auctions that brought in $25,000 for the chapel project. The OLPH Auxiliary donated an additional $30,000.

At the event, Proctor proudly spoke of the completion of the chapel.

“What better structure to sit on the corner of Pollard and Little Street … beckoning to the community about the mission of the home,” she said.

The idea for the chapel first came about, Proctor said, when former superior of the home Sister Florence Gilmore, OP, asked the garden club to design a structure outdoors that could “house the beautiful crucifix cross that was at that time hanging in the chapel.”

Now with the chapel serving as “a beckoning gateway to the property,” Proctor and the club’s wish for the chapel is simple.

“May it serve as a spot for peaceful contemplation for the home’s patients, families, sisters and staff, and may it shine forth as a testament to the community of the mission of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne.”

In his remarks to those in attendance, the archbishop said that the chapel helps to make visible the sisters’ efforts to serve God and his people.

“Everything that is needed to provide care and well-being for the resident patients and for those who serve here is present,” he said. “The parts are complete and they fit together in working fashion.”

“From those vessels of love in whom God’s love burns brightly, not so much with sickness as with anticipation of glory to come—to the Dominican Sisters and their staff, who administer the love of God that can only be felt at the hands of those who sincerely care—to the Auxiliary and the Garden Club who are directly responsible for adding this chapel—and through all who add to the power of Christ’s ministry that is carried on here—through all these harmonious living parts, God’s radiance, His grace upon our efforts to do His will, is made visible.”

The archbishop said that the chapel is a good example of Christ’s light and referred to the Scripture verse: “A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden—therefore let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and give glory to your Father, who is in Heaven.”

“And finally, ascending the mountain of our Faith one more level, this chapel, and the work carried on in this Home of Peace, fit into the larger perspective of the Holy Catholic Church, who in all places and at all times, celebrates the life and the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, and seeks to make the healing love of our Lord an effective means for the salvation of the world and all its peoples.”

The archbishop then sprinkled the chapel with holy water.

A member of the garden club announced that they had planted a weeping Japanese maple tree in the archbishop’s honor on the sidewalk leading to the chapel.

Archbishop Donoghue said he was “honored and delighted” and also joked with the club members, while gesturing to the massive oak trees that surround the property.

“I hope I live long enough to see it grow as big as some of these trees. But I doubt that will happen. You should have planted a bigger tree,” he laughed.

Sister Miriam Smith, OP, superior of the home, expressed her gratitude on behalf of the home’s patients, families and staff.

“The Meditation Chapel will be a place where patients, families, friends, staff and sisters can find a peaceful spot,” she said. “The entire design of this chapel will uplift the spirits of those coming here. This is another way that our home can help people find God’s loving and healing presence.”

“Again, we thank everyone making this Meditation Chapel a reality and in making this little spot in a big city a place to find Christ’s peace in the beauty of nature and within the depths of one’s heart.”