Text from November 18, 1977 Catholic Review
Reminiscent of the Amish custom of "raising"
homes, barns and churches, folks from Good Shepherd Parish, Glen Burnie,
have done some "raising" of their own.
This Sunday they will dedicate a rectory-religion center and a new church,
both of which they built by themselves.
The story goes back about eight years, when Good Shepherd was separated
from Holy Trinity Church as a parish big enough to go on its own. The
550 families involved began meeting for Mass in the gymnasium of Point
Pleasant Elementary School and dreamed of the day when they could have
their own church building.
They later secured 10 acres of vacant land near Marley Creek, off Furnace
Avenue, but they lacked one big essential - money. A building committee
was formed, and parishioners made pledges for the building fund. But
as it stood, it would take two years to raise sufficient funds to even
begin.
Then, according to the parish history, some unusual things began to
happen. First, some of the building committee members came up with the
"absurd" idea of taking the little money they had raised so
far, and building a temporary multipurpose structure themselves. A little
later, an anonymous donor made a large contribution to the parish -
enough to get things started.
Finally, Frank Svoboda showed up. He says he "got sick and tired
of getting up for four years every Sunday morning at 6:30 a.m. to help
set up chairs at the auditorium for Mass."
He took a clipboard one Sunday, stood out in front of the auditorium,
and began grabbing people after Mass and asking them their names. That's
how the "weekend brigade" got started-from the list of 200
names that Mr. Svoboda came up with.
The "brigade" consisted of teachers, writers, business executives,
Sparrows Point workers, plant workers, dockmen, government workers,
insurance salesmen, unemployed, and others. Very few, knew something,
if anything, about building a church.
Apparently, somebody forgot to tell them that they needed to, because
the next thing that happened was "land clearing day".
On "land clearing day," and thereafter, the ladies of the
parish got into the act. They brought food that day, and along with
the "brigade" of men and some children began to drag roots,
tree stumps, whole trees, rocks, and anything else in the way, off of
the Marley Creek property. This was in June, 1973, and the land was
now ready for a multi-purpose structure.
To save time, the building committee called in a contractor to lay the
building foundation and put up the block portion of the walls. Meanwhile,
Mr. Svoboda joined up with some other parishioners; Tom Sinchak, Bill
Bennett and Leo Brukiewa, to organize "shifts" for the brigade.
According to Mr. Svoboda, "this was to avoid having twenty-five
people show up one day to dig a ditch, and only six show up another
day to put on the roof."
With the shift routine, someone would order the materials, someone would
pick them up and deliver them to the site, and someone would call the
necessary number of men to come over to do the job.
Depending on what was to be done that week-end, the brigade might range
from 10 to 125 people.
This went on week-end after week-end, and basically, is how the multi-purpose
Religion Center was built. Except for the foundation and walls, everything
- the plumbing, electrical work, tiling, partitioning and heating ducts,
the hanging of the doors - was done by the people of the parish. Certified
professionals were called in to oversee the work and conduct required
inspections.
In March, 1974, about 10 months after "ground clearing day,"
the new structure was just about 75 percent complete. Then disaster
hit - the building was literally burned to the ground one night by arsonists.
One of the men deeply involved in the project said he cried like a baby
when he heard the news. He said he knew a lot of other men, who did
the same. And there were wives crying too, who had pulled a heavier
load at home on week-ends, while their husbands were out on the project.
Fr. John Kelly, pastor of Good Shepherd, was quoted in a newspaper article
at the time as saying, "We're going to build our church (religion
center) again, there is no doubt about that." He was right too;
because the brigade showed up the next week-end, cleared the rubbish,
and restarted the center.
In October of the same year it was completed and blessed.
The story of the church, begun November, 1975, is really a rerun. Again
contractors were called in to erect the superstructure and do some plumbing
and electrical work, but the men of the parish put up the major portion
of the building.
The women, too, get equal credit, especially for the little fund-raisers
they conducted all along. These included a raffle for an afghan and
Santa Claus dolls, and sales of 25 and 50 cent plants and plant clippings
after Sunday Mass.
The center has room for 250 CCD students and a basement chapel. It also
houses the priests. The church has a 355seat auditorium downstairs and
accomodates 400 people upstairs. According to the archdiocesan insurance
office, the buildings are worth in the neighborhood of $380,000. By
doing it themselves, the Good Shepherd folks built both for much less.
The altar, the crucifix behind it, the pews, the stations of the cross,
and some of the candles were donated by other places'. who no longer
needed them. The murals on the altar and in the vestibule, were done
by Dom Stephen Reid, a Benedictine priest who is associate pastor.
What kind of people would take on - such a project?
Maureen L. Agro, an eight-year, parishioner, describes them as the "great
middle class. You know, the ones with the tax burden and not a whole
lot of money. The kind who would fix their own cars, put in their own
driveways, and build their own club basements."
Father Kelly once said, "We are just the kind of parish to build
everything ourselves. Sure we could have had 25 dozen oyster roasts
to raise the money; but why do that when we could do it ourselves?"