LOCK HAVEN - The Holy Spirit Parish is now official.
It was established for the Lock Haven Catholic community on the first day of the New Year.
Three days of prayer to celebrate the new parish will begin Sunday, and the Most Rev. Mark L. Bartchak, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, will give the homily at a special Mass on Monday evening.
Less than a month ago, two long-established parishes existed in the city, nearly side by side. St. Agnes took pride in its German-Italian heritage; Immaculate Conception harked back to its Irish-American roots.
With the advent of just one full-time priest serving both parishes, the two churches have come to their conclusion, and their histories are written large in this region of Clinton County.
Holy Spirit Parish takes their place.
The new parish will continue to use both former church campuses and will continue to support Lock Haven Catholic School. The school sits just across West Water Street from I.C. Church, and its dining hall is in the church basement. St. Agnes Church on West Walnut Street is next door to what is now Holy Spirit Rectory-Office and Holy Spirit Parish Center. The center is the focal point of several annual fundraising events, plus other activities.
The joining of these two parishes into one reportedly does not stem from a lack of parishioners or finances; rather, it is a response to the shortage of priests that has been experienced for years, not just in the Altoona-Johnstown Diocese, but also across the nation.
Both local churches have been served by one priest since 2010, when Fr. Joseph Orr was assigned to them and Sr. Nancy Spence became pastoral administrator at Immaculate Conception.
With those appointments, the two parishes began moving seriously toward a consolidation. A local unification team was formed, with the mission statement, "One Bread - One Body."
Its volunteer members worked for a year studying the buildings, crafting a budget, getting into specifics, polling parishoners and eventually writing a proposal about how the merger would take place. In August, the team sent its proposal to the bishop, who took it under considered review for some months.
He formally accepted it Dec. 20 and set Jan. 1, 2012, as the date for the new parish to be established.
The name Holy Spirit Parish came from the people, according to Wally Watt, unification team chairman. Many suggestions were put forth, and the team pared them down to four that were not in use anywhere else in the diocese. A total of 585 parishioners, age 16 and older, who attended Mass on July 9 cast a vote for the new name, and about 40 percent of them chose Holy Spirit.
PARISH IDENTITY
The parish will be dedicated Monday at a 7 p.m. Mass at St. Agnes Church.
The newly-formed Holy Spirit Parish Council of 15 members and the new finance council will attend a dinner with the bishop before the Mass. Former priests of both parishes and other priests in the region have been invited to attend. Also attending will be the deacons and members of the unification team.
"It's an inclusive dinner so everybody can be a part of this as we move forward," Parish Council Chairman Daniel Vilello said.
The priests will then take part in the procession to begin the Mass. Also participating in the procession will be local Fourth-degree Knights of Columbus, the Catholic Daughters of the Americas officers, the deacons and the bishop. The parish council members will bear the two banners from St. Agnes and Immaculate Conception to indicate the strong heritage and history that form the base of Holy Spirit Parish.
Eventually, the new parish will have its own banner, but the council does not want to rush into it, Vilello said. Artists can continue to submit designs, he said, and that decision can be made when time is not pressing.
DEDICATION
The three days of prayer will start at St. Agnes Church on Sunday and conclude at Immaculate Conception Church on Tuesday.
For the Monday evening Mass at St. Agnes (the larger of the two sanctuaries), the bishop will be the main celebrant and will preach the homily. Also at that Mass, Vilello will read the bishop's decree establishing the Holy Spirit Parish.
The guest speakers will be state Rep. Mike Hanna and Michele Alexander, principal of Lock Haven Catholic School.
Parish council and finance council officers will bring up the gifts of the Bread and Wine to be used for the celebration of the Mass, Fr. Orr said.
"The Bread and Wine symbolize the people being brought to the altar," he said. "This dates to ancient times. It symbolizes ourselves... the people and their desire to be united with God."
After the Mass, the bishop will greet parishioners in the vestibule. Children will present the bishop with a gift from the parish, a Woolrich Inc. Freedom Throw that carries "a taste of the community," Fr. Orr said.
All three days of prayer are important.
"The focus of our prayer is the Eucharist, which is traditional for Catholic worship," the priest said. "Each day starts with the Mass and then continues throughout the day until devotions in the evening. It ends with a blessing each day."
The benediction will take place at a different time Monday. The Blessed Sacrament will be reposed at 6:30 p.m., prior to the dedication Mass.
"Tuesday's events will take place at Immaculate Conception, so that will tie together the entire community," Fr. Orr said. "At the end of that third day of prayer, we will have what we call the solemn procession of the Blessed Sacrament, which the children will take part in, and then the final blessing of the people in front of the tabernacle. That will close the three days of prayer."
Then the parish will go back to the normal Mass schedule at the two church buildings with no schedule changes.
MOVING FORWARD
The parish council encourages parishioners who may have thoughts, concerns or worries to bring them to a council member, Vilello said, so they can be addressed directly.
"We want to move forward without a lot of fear and trepidation," he said.
Parish council members are Jim Billy, Steve Bianchi, Tim Cooper, Kevin Weller and Krista Walker serving one-year terms; Christine Nestlerode, Pam Rolley, Todd Nesbitt, Brit Orndorf and Kim Wykoff serving two-year terms; and Vilello, Rich Hull, Connie Young, Paul Ballat and Michael Pase serving three-year terms.
Weller is vice chairman, Pase is secretary and Lock Haven Catholic School liaison, Cooper is the youth member, and Billy is finance liaison.
Fifteen worthy individuals volunteered and all were chosen to sit on the council. A drawing determined the length of each member's term. This is basically standard practice, Vilello said, as new members to the previous parish councils were selected in a similar manner each year.
"It was always the Holy Spirit picking the names," he said.
Vilello was previously vice chairman of the St. Agnes Parish Council, then stepped into its chairmanship. His fellow members on the new parish council elected him as their leader.
The new finance council has complete continuity since it is composed of all the members of the two previous parishes' finance councils. Bill Lingle was elected finance council chairman; Pete Rinella is vice chairman.
The parish council plans another review of the buildings, Vilello said. It also will review personnel and establish committees. St. Agnes had more committees than Immaculate Conception did, and the new council will consider which ones will work for the new parish, Vilello said.
The major fundraisers that help support Lock Haven Catholic School will continue, he pledged - Springfest, the candy sale, the Lenten fish fries, the summer fair at the St. Agnes building.
"We hope for new volunteers to come on board," he said.
"The responsibilities of carrying out the parish business has never been more complex and demanding, and we encourage the participation of all parishioners," Vilello said. "It is our expectation that during this challenging and exciting time we will meet those challenges."
