CHAPEL HILL – The Catholic community of St. Thomas More celebrated the 25th anniversary of their church Dec. 12. To observe the occasion, a bilingual Mass was offered for peace in Mexico and celebrated both the milestone and the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
In his homily, Father Scott McCue, pastor, read words from the liturgy book of the original dedication ceremony. They were first shared in the 4th century by Augustine, he said, and reminded those gathered that a dedication is an occasion that follows construction, but building a faith community is ongoing work.
Dedicated Dec. 12, 1998, the current building on Carmichael Street replaced the parish’s former church on Gimghoul Road, which was dedicated in 1957.
Many of the leaders who served the community were present for Mass, including Monsignor Jerry Lewis, who was emcee at the dedication of the school in 1964 and Monsignor Michael Clay, who was pastor when the current church was built. Also present were Monsignor John Wall, former pastor at the Newman Center at nearby UNC-Chapel Hill, Father Chris Koehn, former parochial vicar and Father John Durbin, former pastor.
“Tonight brings together our parish community as one,” said Father Scott. “We come here to celebrate not just this building, but a people. It took many to build this place, to build this parish, really, since 1940.”
The altar was decorated with an advent wreath and a large, traveling image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which depicted Mary surrounded by flowers. The image was at the Gimghoul Road church and has been carried during many processions in parish history.
The St. Thomas More community is made up of about 3,100 families. In addition to Father Scott, it’s served by Father Nicolas Rapkoch, parochial vicar, and three deacons – Luis Royo, Bob Troy and Stephen Yates. In his remarks, Father Scott thanked all those, including staff, choirs, council members and ministry teams, who contributed to the 25th anniversary celebration.
A reception was held after Mass, and bulletin boards and memory books highlighted history through “now-and-then” photos and newspaper articles.
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