Local News
Greensboro Catholics Build Faith And New Church
Published: September 2, 2004
GREENSBORO—These are end-of-summer labor days for the Lord at Christ Our King and Savior Church in Greensboro as members make final preparations to dedicate the first permanent church building on their 11-acre property. Archbishop John F. Donoghue will celebrate the dedication Mass Oct. 22 and an open house will be held Oct. 24.
The Greene County parish on the southeastern border of the archdiocese has laid the cornerstone for the building, placing within it all past parish directories. Parishioners will be able to celebrate Mass for the first time in the parish hall of the newly constructed church on Sept. 11. Then on Sept. 14 they will tear down the original church, a converted doctor’s office made up of four modular homes, and will complete a circular driveway in front of the new building.
The church is a two-story, 20,000-square-foot split-faced sandstone structure, complete with a bell tower for carillon bells to play the Angelus at noon. A Celtic cross will be placed on top of the tower.
“It’s exceeding our expectations, no doubt. It’s been a lot of heartburn and grief over the period of time, but it’s for sure turned out better than I thought and the parishioners thought,” said Bob Coletta, the building committee chairman.
Father Fernando Molina-Restrepo inherited the challenging project when he was assigned to the parish in June 2003, his first pastorate. He reports that the project is on schedule and that “everybody is very enthusiastic and very satisfied with the results” and “everybody has been involved.”
“It has been busy just trying to continue with the plans of the parish and so far I think we are almost there,” he said.
The project will cost $3.58 million and although the pastor reports that it is “on budget,” they must still raise some money and will likely have to borrow about $1.3 million.
“If there is a need the building committee has been very dedicated, giving countless hours . . . The people of the parish are giving from their treasure and talent and time to make this happen and those not able to make a pledge they are still praying for the church so everybody is committed to this budget,” he said. “It has been a challenge, of course, but I have very many wonderful people on the committees, very helpful. We have worked together and they have advised me very well and Catholic Construction Services has been there with all of this kind of help.”
The parish, located on Oconee Parkway, is down the road from a Ritz-Carlton lodge on Lake Oconee, the second largest lake in Georgia, and not far from a country club, golf courses, resorts and gated community homes, but also just one county over from Hancock County, one of the poorest in Georgia. The St. Vincent de Paul Society is a core parish ministry and when not able to help a client, SVDP partners with other Christian churches in the area.
The first Mass was celebrated in Greensboro in 1992 at the home of Mildred Stiffler by Glenmary Father Chet Artysiewicz. The first public Mass was celebrated at an Episcopal church and the community was named Christ Our King Church. In 1993 the first Mass in Eatonton was celebrated at a Presbyterian church and the Catholic community was named Christ Our Savior. The Greensboro community began with 30 households and Eatonton with 20. Eventually in 1996 the communities were combined as Christ Our King and Savior Church in Greensboro. The Glenmary Home Missioners, a society of priests and brothers who originally staffed it, withdrew in 1996 and the archdiocese assumed pastoral care of the parish. Father Serge Ward became the first pastor. A building and 11 acres of property were purchased and the first Mass was celebrated in the first church in 1997.
The larger church size will enable the whole English-speaking community to worship at one Mass on Sundays at 9 a.m., followed by the Spanish Mass at 11:30 a.m. The existing church will only hold 130 and its social hall only 40, while the new church will hold 340 and its social hall about 90. The new building includes four offices, six classrooms, a kitchen and a conference room. The church sanctuary features a 10-foot-wide rose window depicting Christ the King surrounded by angels. The church will have Gothic window arches, two Southern pine wood beams across a 35-foot ceiling and additional stained glass images in the vestibule and narthex.
In February 2001 approval was given by the archdiocese to begin planning the project. Hiscutt and Associates of Alpharetta are the architects and Batson Cook Construction Co. of Atlanta is the builder.
Since last fall the community has grown from about 285 to 306 families, about half of whom are retired people who have relocated from states including Ohio and Michigan.
Construction chairperson Tom Rouse, retired after working for over 40 years at General Motors, believes the new church will attract new members, and said they have received many comments about its beauty from the larger community.
“It’s going to attract more people, maybe some fallen-away Catholics. We have a lot of people who move to Reynolds Plantation, a golfing and boating community,” Rouse said.
Rouse said that he and his wife moved to Greensboro from Dayton, Ohio, after falling in love with the South where they lived from 1968-73. The church project, which he has worked on as a volunteer for about five hours a day, is a way to give back.
“I’ve got a really good life, good job and wife, three daughters and 10 grandkids, six boys and four girls,” he said. “I wanted to do it. I feel I owe it to the Lord, that’s the reason I’m doing it.”
Among those excited to worship in the new church is Pat Frain, a founding member who, along with Mildred Stiffler, originally petitioned the Glenmary order to found a Catholic Church in the area.
“It’s the most beautiful church building,” she said. “We were here in the very beginning and we never thought we’d see this type of building in our lifetime.”
Coletta has found bringing the house of worship to this predominantly Protestant area of Georgia to be a surprisingly faith-building project.
“You start out with a project to build a building,” he mused. “As you mature in the process you realize it’s not a building, it’s a place of worship to God and will be left for many generations to celebrate the Eucharist, the body and blood of Christ. You start feeling the spirituality of the whole process while you do it.”
