HISTORY OF HOLY SPIRIT CATHOLIC CHURCH

In the Beginning...   In response to the growing number of Catholic families in the Denver, North Carolina area, Bishop Michael J. Begley established Holy Spirit Mission in 1979.  The first Mass was held at St. Peter by-the-Lake Episcopal Church on March 3, 1979.  Fr. Carlo Tarasi, pastor of St. Dorothy’s Catholic Church in Lincolnton, celebrated our first Mass attended by 65 people.

For the first nine years, Masses were held at 5:30 p.m. on Saturdays at St. Peter-by-the-Lake where the congregation grew as well as the determination to have our own church.  During that time the mission was served by Fr. Tarasi, Fr. Conrad Kimbrough, Fr. John Parsons, Fr Cecil Tice, Fr. Charles Rooks and occasionally monks from Belmont Abbey.  All the priests who served Holy Spirit during this time, except for the monks, were pastors of St. Dorothy’s Catholic Church in Lincolnton.  The understanding and support of St. Dorothy’s will always be reflected in our prayers.  We also thank the kind members of St. Peter-by-the-Lake Episcopal Church, who sustained us during our infancy.

On July 10, 1979, the first weekday Mass was celebrated.  The first Parish Council meeting, was led by Fr. Tarasi, pastor of St. Dorothy, and the name of Holy Spirit Catholic Mission was adopted.  At that time parishioners accepted roles in parish commissions such as Communications, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine and Spiritual Committees.

In 1987, Fr. Rooks made the commitment to move the Saturday evening Mass to Sunday Masses and move from St. Peter-by-the-Lake to the East Lincoln Optimist Club Building.  When this occurred, Holy Spirit Catholic Mission grew to over 100 families, which hastened the desire for our own church.

A home to call our own... In 1988 the congregation began the search for property for a church site.  About 15 sites in the Denver and Triangle areas were investigated without success.  By 1988 the church, which began with 20 people, had grown to nearly 250 members.

When Lincoln County declared the Triangle School and surrounding property “surplus”, Holy Spirit joined with the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte to bid on the property In May of 1988 and was granted the 6.5 acres and 7,300 square foot school for $335,000 was renamed Rock Hill School after another area school was destroyed by fire. In 1968 the school was combined with Rock Springs School under one principal and was renamed Rock Springs II. The school was later named Triangle Elementary and closed in 1986.

After the purchase of the building by Holy Spirit, it was renovated during the summer and fall of 1988 through 1989 into a church with a beautiful sanctuary, foyer, offices, classrooms and living and social areas. Managed by parishioner Lou Gais, this was accomplished with the help of many dedicated parishioners with little outside labor. A new roof, restrooms, drywall, carpet and HVAC systems were installed. The old-school auditorium was transformed into a worship space for 230 people. The first Mass was celebrated on Christmas Day, 1988 by Fr Rooks with a table for an altar and without pews.

Starting as a mission... After nearly a year of cleaning, painting, renovating and praying, the congregation celebrated the near completion of the new house of worship. At the time, only one wing remained to be renovated. The Most Reverend John F Donoghue, DD, Bishop of Charlotte Diocese, held the dedication of the church on May 15, 1989.

The school’s auditorium, unused for two years, is now a light-filled spacious 2,500 square foot sanctuary with a soaring ceiling.  Above the altar, at the roof’s apex, a stained-glass wedge is set into the wall depicting the descent of a dove. Rustic cross beams, discovered when the room’s false ceiling was removed, have been stained a soft brown, and the beams that had supported the stage were crafted into a roughly hewn cross with a corpus that provides the focal point of the altar.  Rows of red cushioned pews line the sanctuary. Casement windows were replaced with stained glass windows, which represent events in the life of Christ and allow sunlight to filter in.

An unusual detail in the sanctuary is the ceiling high archways for the stained-glass windows and the archways for the doors on each side of the room. The frames were found as such in the original building when the church removed the false ceiling and added a new roof.  The top parts of the windows were boarded over above the false ceiling and looked to be rectangular from inside, but they were found to be archs filled in with concrete, which was removed to provide the current arched windows.

Many donations were received for the sanctuary, such as stained glass windows in memory of loved ones, two organs and the corpus behind the altar.  The altar and lectern were made and donated by parishioner Tom Grabinski.  Donations from other churches include hanging light fixtures from St. Gabriel’s in Charlotte and a treasured baptismal font from St. Ursula’s in Allison Park, Pennsylvania.

Classrooms in one building wing were repainted and carpeted and an apartment for the priest was constructed.  In the south wing the classroom walls were removed and renovated into a combination social area, classrooms and a meeting area with a full kitchen. Later a steeple containing a functioning bell was built by Tom Grabinski.

The Diocese, in addition to loaning the money to purchase the building and land, loaned Holy Spirit $200,000 to pay for the renovations. Without the in house donations and the volunteer labor of many parishioners, Holy Spirit would have had to take out an additional $100,000 in loans to finish the renovations. The true cost of Holy Spirit was approximately $635,000 with the parishioners saving almost $100,000 in labor leaving a net debt of $535,000. By June 1991 the amount of the parish debt had been reduced to under $389,000.

In June of 1989 Bishop Donohue transferred the care of Holy Spirit Church to the pastor of St. Therese in Mooresville.  Up to that time the mission had been a part of St. Dorothy’s parish in Lincolnton. Fr. William Shean, S.J. was assigned to Holy Spirit on September 1, 1989 and resided at St. Therese. Fr. Shean was assisted by Fr. Frank McManamin, who also helped in other areas of the diocese. The finances and the operation of the mission parish were kept separate from St. Therese so that the mission could develop rapidly to the point where it could be a viable parish.

In November of 1989, after two years of petitioning, the congregation of Holy Spirit finally received the answer to its prayers with the assignment of the first full-time pastor Monsignor Thomas Burke.  Monsignor Burke came to Denver after a 16-month mission assignment in the Virgin Islands. He set up residence in the newly remodeled apartment within the church building, which is now the nursery.

Priests since the dedication of our church have been Fr. Charles Rooks, Fr. William Kelley SJ, Msgr. Thomas Burke, Fr John Tuller, Fr. Conrad Kimbrough, Fr. JamesCollins, Fr. Peter Jugis, Fr. James Byer and Fr. Joseph Ayathupadam.

In August of 1989 the Ladies Sodality was formed and in May of 1990 a Knights of Columbus Council was chartered. Both organizations became immediately involved in the community beyond the church walls. Members of the Ladies Guild responded to the needs of Hurricane Hugo with a tractor trailer load of food, clothing and household items donated by a cross section of the East Lincoln community. The Guild topped off the donation with $400 raised through a yard sale. In early 1991, the Knights of Columbus Council donated $4000 raised through Operation LAMB to county agencies and signed up for the Adopt-A-Highway program. 

In 1991 the church membership had risen to about 165 families. In September of that year Holy Spirit held its first September Fest, which was an annual event until 1997, to raise finances for the church operating fund. In 1996, through volunteer work and donations of the parishioners, the original debt for the property, building, and renovations was completely paid.

 Becomming a Parish Church... On May 31, 1998, Bishop William G. Curlin, officially designated Holy Spirit as a parish. With the announcement, Bishop Curlin presented Fr. Jim Collins a framed declaration establishing the new parish’s boundaries. This official document, which hangs in the church foyer outlines the 112-square mile church family. Holy Spirit is in the Gastonia Vicariate.

In July 1998, a new rectory was purchased and furnished. It is located about 3.7 miles south of the church off Highway 16. The original house and furnishings were purchased for approximately $175,000. The goal was to pay off the entire rectory debt in 2003. The apartment at the church was renovated and used as parish offices.

In early 1999, due to the growth of the membership, the Parish Council undertook a project of conducting a survey to identify projects to be addressed. Approximately 60% of the families completed the survey which identified a pressing need for classrooms, youth and parish activities, homebound assistance and community outreach.                             

Constructing an activity center...  A study conducted in 1998 by the Diocesan Office of Planning estimated the number of families in Holy Spirit would be 375 in 2005 and 493 in 2010. With these growth projections and survey results, an in-depth parish profile was authorized by the Parish Council, which was completed and approved by the Diocese in December of 2000. The profile identified several areas of attention with the focus centering on initiating a building campaign for a facility to provide space for activities and classrooms. During the summer of 2001 plans were finalized for a Parish Activity Building campaign and in September 2001 the campaign was initiated. On December 7, 2003 ground was broken for a 19,909-square foot activity center. The ceremony was presided over by Bishop Peter J. Jugis with Fr. Joe Ayathupadam and Deacon Dick Kauth participating.

he Parish Activity Center became a reality with the dedication by Bishop Jugis on September 10, 2005. The initial faith formation classes began the same month. In February of 2006 our first community function, a Valentine’s Dance, was held and in October our first dinner was served.

 Leading our parish... Having served as pastor of Holy Spirit for six years, Fr. Joe Ayathupadam retired in June 2006. Fr. Carmen Malacari was assigned to Holy Spirit as its new pastor in July. Not long after Fr. Carmen arrived, Deacon Jim Atkinson (and wife Penny) were assigned to the parish.  As the parish grew, there was an obvious need for more communication, evangelization, and service organizations to meet the needs of the parish and the East Lincoln community. In 2014, Deacon Matt Reilly (and his wife Donna) were assigned to Holy Spirit.

In 2015, it became apparent that the growth in East Lincoln would drive the parish to pursue a new church.  This growth, coupled with growing maintenance cost of a 100-year-old building and the inconvenience of an overflow room for Mass, created the need to start a building fund campaign. A building fund campaign committee was formed and the campaign is currently underway.

[Holy Spirit Catholic Church Aerial View - Concept Image – Subject to Change]

Deacon Webster James (and his wife Celia) arrived at Holy Spirit in January 2017 just in time to replace Deacon Jim who moved to be closer to his family.

As of January 2017, our parish has 675 registered families and with God’s help and guidance the members of Holy Spirit Catholic Church will continue to fulfill its mission statement and touch each other’s lives as well as the lives of others in and around the parish community.