Archbishop Edwin O'Brien of the Archdiocese of Baltimore guided the dedication of the new Spiritual Life Center at Holy Family Catholic Church in Davidsonville on Sunday. The center is a 29,000-square-foot, $7.5 million addition to the church. The year-long construction project doubled the space available to parishioners.
According to building committee member Betty Ryon, the construction phase of the project was the least painful aspect. "The real fight for this was before the construction even began," Ryon said.
The project began back in 1998.
Just seven years prior to that, the church had moved out of the small chapel on Davidsonville Road and into the 29,000-square-foot church. It was 1991 when that "new" space was dedicated by Archbishop William Keeler to serve the parish's 800 families.
The small chapel on Central Avenue was, and is, still used for daily mass, funerals and weddings.
But as the church community in Davidsonville grew, they quickly began to outgrow even their new space, which, unlike the chapel, had a larger fellowship hall for social gatherings, office space and a place for religious education.
In 1998, the pastoral council created a 10-year master plan with an eye on further expansion. From there, it was a matter of raising the capital and getting the county to grant the variances and permits required to meet the needs of the growing flock.
Father Joe Barr has been leading Holy Family for the past 14 years. He watched as the parish expanded in numbers - from 800 families to 1,500 families - but the physical space available to them stayed the same.
"The former nursery was in a storage room with no windows," Barr said.
They wanted the new space to integrate seamlessly with the existing structure, so they rehired Jim Cush of Corkill Cush Reeves Architects, the firm behind the 1991 build.
In December of 2008, after 10 years of securing pledges for the capital campaign and navigating the county permitting process, they finally broke ground on the new space.
They had a few challenges during the construction, but since Cush had designed the original structure, he was aware of some of the problems they might encounter.
"The worst problem was the ground. There's very soft soil here, which gave us some challenges," Cush said.
"But we did it - in one year - on schedule. The construction company was great, hard-working," Cush said.
On Sunday, 11 months and three weeks after the groundbreaking, Archbishop O'Brien led the flock from the nave to the new social hall after Mass, with a stop at the perpetual adoration oratory.
"(This new space is) a great tribute to the dedication of the catholic community, and the larger community," the archbishop said after the dedication.
"As I was standing in the space, I couldn't help but think of the young people and how much they'll benefit from this, not only with the addition of space but also because they can see the sacri-fices it took to get here," he said.
County Executive John R. Leopold and Sen. Ed Reilly were among the dignitaries.
"Places like this allow group gatherings that make the fabric of a community," Reilly said in his remarks to the gathering.
Joan Jenkins, fellowship director, was busy throughout the morning with volunteers, setting out a large spread of food donated by over 50 helpers.
"The former social hall was half the size of the new one," Jenkins said. She noted that the new space will be available for all of their social functions, like the upcoming Pizza with Santa event, spaghetti dinners, the new parishioner welcome dinner, and as an overflow space for Christmas Mass and Easter Mass.
The new space also boasts a new commercial kitchen, complete with a dishwasher, double oven and plenty of storage space.
"We love this new space - we're going to be spoiled over here," said Laura Benso, kitchen manager.
As for the new nursery, Father Barr said that it is now the best real estate in the place. "It is a 15-by-30 room with windows," he said.
Aside from the new fellowship hall, the bigger nursery and the new perpetual adoration oratory, the new addition will also allow religious education classes to be held in individual classrooms. Confraternity of Christian Doctrine used to be held in the old social hall, where curtains defined and separated classroom space.
As for the old space, the old social hall and classrooms will be used for offices, and as a new youth group meeting area. The storage spaces that had been converted will revert back to being storage spaces.
The final construction is technically not yet finished. Father Barr said that the construction company, Hopkins and Wayson, have a few more items on the punchlist.
"Little things like electrical outlets and drywall, that sort of thing," he said. That work should be done by Dec. 30.
Those little things didn't seem to matter to the hundreds of parishioners gathered on Sunday to celebrate.
Mitchelle Stephenson is a freelance writer living in Edgewater.
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