Holy Eucharist and Ecuador

In October, 2007, Holy Eucharist Roman Catholic Church of Tabernacle, New Jersey, my parish church, celebrated its 25th Anniversary. I was asked to compile the history of the parish for the Anniversary booklet. It is reprinted here:

The History of Holy Eucharist Parish

By Joseph M. Laufer

There are 24 Roman Catholic parishes in Burlington County. Holy Eucharist was the twenty-third parish created, followed only by St. Isaac Jogues parish in Marlton, established in 1996. Holy Eucharist serves the largest geographic area in the county, encompassing four Pinelands townships. Our “Family Tree” among the Burlington County churches of the Diocese of Trenton began in 1845 with the creation of St. Paul’s Church in Burlington City, the first Catholic Church in Burlington County. By 1848, the faithful in Mount Holly established Sacred Heart church to serve parishioners in the southern half of the county. Subsequently, in 1905, the Diocese established St. Ann’s in the Pines in Browns Mills. Priests from Sacred Heart would offer Mass during the summer in a pavilion at Medford Lakes. Eventually, local congregants constructed a log cabin church there and Diocesan officials created the parish of St. Mary of the Lakes in 1943, followed by the new church on Jackson Road, Medford, dedicated in 1966. Finally, as St. Mary of the Lakes grew to become the largest parish in geographic area within the Diocese of Trenton, and the community of LeisureTowne was created in Southampton Township in 1970, the Catholic population of the area grew and by 1982, the diocese determined the need for another parish.

Before Holy Eucharist:

Little did John Brainerd, a young Christian missionary who traveled to Indian Mills, realize that the establishment of a one-room church in 1778 would lead to the eventual name for a growing township. Brainerd organized this small church, built on the present site of the Tabernacle Cemetery at the corner of Chatsworth and Hampton Gate Road, for the northeastern section of what was then Shamong Township. The church became known as “Tabernacle in the Wilderness.” Both Indians and white settlers worshipped in it.

As the population grew, a Catholic identity began to take shape even though few in number. In 1940 the faithful worshipped at Saint Ann’s in the Pines, Browns Mills. When Sacred Heart, Mount Holly, created a mission church at Medford Lakes in 1943, area residents worshipped there.

Catholics felt unwelcome in Tabernacle during the first half of the twentieth century. In 1940, Anthony Russo, a second-generation Italian American whose family roots lay in Messina, Sicily, purchased a farm in Tabernacle. The Russo Family had a farm on Burlington-Mount Holly Road in Burlington Township, but Anthony always desired his own farm. To help pay for it, he worked at a Philadelphia shipyard, and his brother, Louie, also pitched in to make the dream come true. And so they moved to Tabernacle Township. The only other Catholics in the area were Henry and Joe Eschenberg and Timothy Campbell, all chicken farmers, and Carl and Sophie Baker. Frank and Joe Grungo moved into the area a bit later.

Catholic school children first attended Sacred Heart School in Mount Holly and later Our Lady of Good Counsel in Moorestown. Anthony Russo shuttled the children to and from Moorestown on one school bus. The Sisters of St. Joseph of Newark taught CCD in the Russo’s home from 1946 to 1955. The need for a Catholic school in the area became apparent and St. Joseph’s School, located on Rt. 70 in Medford, opened its doors in 1956 under the auspices of St. Mary of the Lakes parish.

St. Mary of the Lakes continued to grow and shortly after Father William Campbell’s arrival in 1958, the congregation made plans for a new church. The Diocese dedicated St. Mary of the Lakes on Jackson Road in Medford Township in 1966.

Up until this time, Southampton, Tabernacle, Shamong or Woodland townships contained few Catholics. It was hard to even conceive that there would ever be a need for a Catholic Church in any of these communities. Then, in 1970, developers created an adult retirement community in Southampton Township. Known as LeisureTowne, the announced plans called for the gradual creation of over 2,000 homes. The community attracted people from Northern New Jersey and Pennsylvania – many of them Catholics. It immediately generated a surge in the Catholic population of this predominantly Protestant community. Most of the residents attended St. Mary of the Lakes Church, although some gravitated to St. Ann’s, Browns Mills, and others to Sacred Heart in Mount Holly. (Today, 37 years since it opened, there are 2,173 homes in LeisureTowne, with a population of 3,800).

By 1981, St. Mary of the Lakes had become the largest geographical parish in New Jersey. It was during this summer that Father John Campoli attempted to find a convenient location to provide Mass for the parishioners from LeisureTowne in their own neighborhood. Leisuretown’s Steve Baron aided in the search for an appropriate building to hold the liturgy. Through Steve’s efforts and with Father Campoli’s consent, the church rented a firehouse in Hampton Lakes, directly adjacent to LeisureTowne.

The next problem for Father Campoli was staffing. Father asked a Pallotine Priest, Father Walter Norris, if he would be interested. When Father Walter accepted the task, he would begin the program in September, 1981. (The Pallotine Fathers staffed Bishop Eustace High School in Cherry Hill).

There was mixed reaction to this experiment. Some parishioners felt uneasy about attending Mass in a firehouse and preferred the commute to St. Mary’s. Others enjoyed the informality and homelike atmosphere of the liturgy, and they became regulars. As things progressed, Joe and Marion Cassidy introduced music to enhance the liturgy to the great pleasure of those attending. By the spring of 1982 the attendance at Mass had grown to 150-200 each week. Some hardships had to be overcome: making sure the firehouse was opened, setting up chairs, sweeping out the firehouse, getting the fire engines removed, and turning on the heat. None of these factors ever deterred attendance, however. On one very hot day, Father Walter celebrated Mass outdoors on one of the fire engines.

After the parish census of 1981, Father Campoli realized a need to find an additional location for holding Mass. Beginning in the summer of 1982, Tabernacle Middle School became the site for these services. The priests celebrated Mass at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. The weekly attendance grew to 500.

During this period, Fathers William McKeone and Walter Norris often commented on their missionary assignments to Southampton and Tabernacle with humor and warmth. The parishioners enthusiastically welcomed the opportunity to attend Mass in their own communities.

Need for a New Parish

It became apparent to Bishop John Reiss that a church in Tabernacle would be both a spiritual and practical benefit to the people in that part of Burlington County. On September 17, 1982, Bishop Reiss announced that effective October 1, 1982 there would be the formation of a new parish – Holy Eucharist in Tabernacle, New Jersey, that would encompass Shamong, Southampton, Tabernacle, and Woodland townships. With that announcement the spiritual and communal journey of our parish began. On October 3, Father James Roche, the newly appointed pastor, spoke at all the Sunday Masses in St. Mary of the Lakes Church, Medford. Bishop Reiss installed Father Roche as Pastor on January 9, 1983.

Masses continued at Hampton Lakes until December 26, 1982 – the last liturgy there – when Tabernacle Middle School became the single location for Sunday Mass. Mr. Anthony Russo and Mr. Stephen Lee accepted the responsibility of becoming parish trustees.

The need for a church building soon became apparent. Anthony Russo conveyed twelve and one-half acres of farm land on November 18, 1983 to Church officials for a new edifice. The property had been in the Russo family since 1970 when Anthony purchased it from Mervin Fletcher. Originally Frank Earl Haines owned this land. Many who knew him have indicated that Anthony Russo’s vision for a Catholic Church at this location motivated him to purchase the land in 1970. However, another dream, to have the parish named after his patron, St. Anthony, remained unfulfilled.

In early 1983 the congregation formed two important committees to work with Father Roche. Pete “Sonny” Capelli, Bob Ragone, Walter Knortz, and Thomas Monehan joined trustees Russo and Lee on a finance committee. Then a building committee began to plan for a space that could accommodate the newly-formed church community. Buzz Sawyer, Richard Ellis, Joseph Lasano, Mary Reece, Mary Ross, Bill Upham and Bill Price joined Stephen Lee, III and Joe Casano for this monumental task. The committee identified the first priority as constructing the worship space, followed by classrooms and a hall, if the budget allowed. After receiving the approval of the Pinelands Commission to move forward, the committee engaged in many thousands of hours of education, investigation, planning, coordination and volunteer labor that even included the site grading, sprinkler installation and landscaping for the 12.5-acre site.

They began the next phase of the process by visiting recently constructed churches throughout the diocese. Then, Father Roche suggested that they pause and search for a “liturgical consultant” to help educate and guide the building program. On May 2, 1983 they engaged Father Richard Vosko, a priest of the Diocese of Albany, New York, and a nationally acclaimed liturgical consultant. The committee selected Father Vosco based on his expertise and his reputation for including the entire parish community in the education and design process. The committee and Father Vosko invited the parish to a three-Sunday series of “town meetings” to help design the church. Father Vosko spoke with parishioners about post-Vatican II liturgical changes and helped us incorporate the identified needs of the new parish community into a formal building program document. During the summer of 1983, more than a thousand contributors to this plan came forth to create a very special, beautiful and practical parish facility, one which blended in with the natural rural setting and also incorporated historic and modern liturgical design elements.

The mandate for construction of a new church grew rapidly, confirmed by an extensive survey produced earlier that year. Over a thousand parishioners participated through interviews, questionnaires and other communications. As much as it could be, this program comprised elements of massive communications and consensus.

The committee engaged architect Henry Jung, A.I.A., in early August 1983. Among his many accomplishments are the Air Force Academy Chapel in Colorado, the United Nations Chapel in New York and sixty other churches around the country.

In the fall of 1983 a $1,000,000 building fund campaign began. The parish leased a trailer and placed it on the building site. The committee devised a pledge system for the convenience of contributors. As a result of the success of this campaign and the generosity of our friends and parishioners, building plans proceed rapidly.

Father John W. Ryan joined Holy Eucharist as an associate pastor on March 3, 1984. Fathers Roche and Ryan moved into our newly purchased rectory located at 42 Sleepy Hollow Drive on March 4, 1984. The congregation held a “shower” on March 18^th to provide the two priests with household necessities.

The committee received contracting bids for the new church in January 1985 and awarded the general contract to E. Allen Reeves, Inc., of Abington, PA. After obtaining all necessary approvals from the township, the parish broke ground on April 19, 1985. Actual construction began in June of 1985 with the church complex being completed in the summer of 1986.

Concomitantly with the construction of the church, liturgies continued at Tabernacle Middle School and at times, Tabernacle School #1 and even on the athletic fields. The parish celebrated its Lenten masses at the Tabernacle Methodist Church in 1985 and 1986 and we shared in the Thanksgiving Evening services with the Methodist Community in 1985. Congregants organized support groups to meet the spiritual and temporal needs of parishioners. Picnics and socials provided opportunities for fun.

Proving inspiration by the Holy Spirit, the committee immediately began operating as a “parish family,” focusing their energies on the task of making a home in Tabernacle Township. Parish committees began to form, focusing on specific ministries and apostolates. The parish functioned as a faith-sharing community long before completion of the church. This was a period of creativity, consensus building, hard work, painful disappointments and many satisfactions. The last two months before the scheduled dedication of the church generated anxiety and anticipation. Right down to the last minute, as Bishop John Reiss arrived for the consecration of our place of worship at 2:00 p.m. on September 7, 1986, parishioners laid the last strips of sod around the church in “the gateway to the Pines.”

Since that time the parish has continued a journey. The parish community has grown, ministries have developed, personnel have changed, we have said farewell to many who were instrumental in getting our parish going and have welcomed the gifts and talents of many new families; but the parish continues as a work in progress. In 1988, Holy Eucharist held its first Pine Barrens Festival. It has become not only an important fund-raiser for the parish, but a means of building “community” and reaching out to our neighbors. For nineteen years it has been a part of the fabric of our parish.

Not satisfied to simply think of our own parish community, we began a sister parish relationship with St. Mary Ann’s in Duran, Ecuador in 1989. It soon grew to visits by our parishioners, mutual prayer, Lenten fasting and almsgiving through our “Lenten Soup Nights” project, along with continuing charity to support a mission. Father Dennis O’Brien, a Florida diocesan priest who served as a missionary volunteer in Ecuador with the Society of St. James, visited Holy Eucharist regularly as a spokesperson for the people’s needs. The project helped us be a real part of the Catholic Church in the world with other people who share our faith and hopes. Soon our attention shifted to Quito, Ecuador, when Father Bob Thomas became our contact abroad. More visits by parishioners to our sister parish resulted in expanding our assistance with the introduction of an annual Nativity Set raffle. Today, we have moved our support there to a major Children’s Mission in Quito.

During 1985 and 1986, and again in 1997 and 1998, parishioners participated in several seasons of “Renew” – a national program of organized faith sharing within small groups focused on various biblical and social themes. The Renew groups met weekly in private homes throughout the parish.

Father Richard Milewski became the second pastor of Holy Eucharist, serving from 1993 until 1998. Father Joseph Farrell, an Associate Pastor during this period, then served as Temporary Administrator (November 1998 – April, 1999) when the Diocese assigned Father Rich to a parish in Freehold. Installation of Father Michael Lang as pastor occurred in 1999. Father Mike ministered to our people until July, 2002. On May 11, 2002, Joseph DeLuca was ordained as a Permanent Deacon and he continues to assist in the ministry of the parish. On July 12, 2002, the Bishop appointed Father Andrew Jamieson as Parochial Administrator and subsequently Pastor in December of that year. He immediately began efforts to bring to fruition the community’s long-held desire to build a parish hall and education center. A fund-raising campaign called “Continuing the Journey” culminated in the dedication of Hoffman Hall, the classroom wing and several meeting rooms on November 19, 2005.

Indicative of our growth are the numbers of Baptisms, Weddings, Funerals, Families and Children in our Religious Education programs. Several benchmark years provide examples of the numbers:

During 1982-83, the first year of our existence as a parish, we baptized 89; ten years later the number was 90; in 2002 there were 98 baptisms and in 2006, 70.
Twenty-four couples received the sacrament of matrimony during our first year; In 1992 the church celebrated 27 weddings; in 2002, 10 and in 2006, our priests performed 14 weddings.
In 1982, the parish records list five funerals; 31 in 1992; 52 in 2002 and 53 in 2006.
Our parish began with 1,600 families. It grew to 2,109 by 1992; 2,739 in 2002 and today boasts of 2,574 families translating into a total parish population of 8,432.
During the 1982-83 school-year we had 670 children in our religious education program; in 1992 we had 805; in 2002 the number had risen to 814 and in 2006 we had 755.

We began our parish life in simple ways: with people who set up chairs in a school or fire-hall for Sunday Masses, people who helped with singing, teachers who volunteered with the education program, ushers and Mass-servers. We have developed into hundreds of parishioners giving time, talent, treasure and service in over forty parish committees.

We have used God-given gifts for the good of our parish, region and world community. Our lives have been touched by qualities of compassion, patience, fidelity, and hospitality toward one another; and we have celebrated that in our worship, especially in the Eucharist.

Each day marks the beginning of a new chapter of the story of who we are as a faith community. We give thanks to God for the gifts of faith, the place we call parish and the people who are willing to be travelers on this journey.

Our Pastors

Father James J. Roche – October, 1982 –June, 1993

Father Richard Milewski – July, 1993 – November, 1998

Father Joseph Farrell – November, 1998 – April, 1999

Father Michael Lang – April, 1999 – July, 2002

Father Andrew Jamieson – Administrator: July, 2002; Pastor, December, 2002 - present

The Development of our Parish Building

Our desire to move from temporary to permanent quarters led us to accept that certain elements would be added gradually to complete our dream. On the day of dedication, our Baptismal Font was en-route from Italy! We would do without stained glass windows, Stations of the Cross, and other liturgical adornments for several years. To insure that we would be faithful to the vision of our founding parishioners, we added the following elements as the funds became available to pay for them.

1989 – We added the corpus to the altar cross on September 29. Robert K. Carsten of Springfield, Vermont, carved the figure from basswood to fit an existing outline of a cross behind the altar.

1989 - Stephen Lee and the Lee family, donated the organ, a Rodger’s Model 890 “pipe augmented organ,” first played on December 25, 1989. There are 407 pipes and an electronic augmentations system for the lower notes. The cost amounted to $99,000.

1996 – Stations of the Cross, sculpted by Holy Eucharist parishioner Joseph Palecki. The original drawings of Henry Jung, the architect of the church, provided the design of the stations. Bishop Reiss dedicated them on March 1. The original design called for the fashioning of the stations out of wire, but experimental models did not create the intended effect. Mr. Palecki also designed Holy Eucharist’s statue of Our Blessed Lady, inspired by the image of Our Lady of Medjugorje.

1993-2002 - Internationally acclaimed artist, Maureen McGuire, of Phoenix, Arizona designed our stained glass windows. The order of installation was:

1. Blessed Sacrament Chapel and Confessional – December 24, 1989

2. Daily Chapel - May, 1993

Theme: Sacraments of Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Matrimony and Holy Orders

3. Lower Nave – May, 1998 – Theme: Earthscape; Eucharistic Celebration

4. Upper Nave – May, 2001 – Theme: Celebration in the Universe

5. Atrium – December, 2002 – Baptism and Confirmation; The Four Evangelists; The local environment, including pinelands, holly, cranberries, blueberries.

2005 - Hoffman Hall/Education Wing – Dedicated - November 19, 2005

Historic firsts:

First Mass October 2, 1982

First Marriages October 2, 1982

Michael T. Gallagher and Antoinette Tromontana

Thomas A Hewitt and Patricia Ann Van Horn

First Baptism October 3, 1982 Nicole Condurso

First Funeral October 16, 1982 Eugene Hutchison

First Adult Converts April 2, 1983 Six Confirmees

First Communion April 30, 1983 88 Communicants

First May Crowning May 8, 1983 Maureen Davis

First Holy Orders May 14, 1983 Joseph Lombarski

First Confirmation November 11, 1983 103 Confirmees

In addition to our Pastors, many people marked our first twenty-five years. Among them we note particularly the pioneers - Father Walter Norris, Father Jack Ryan, Father Anatol Woloszyn, Sister Margaret Joyce and Sister Robin Smith. Deacons Joseph Lambarski, Daniel Pienciak, Richard Meyer, Stanley Orkis, John Zimmerle and Ken Zepsey stand among the first to assist in our parish ministry. They shared our faith and affected it in important ways. We are grateful to them. We have made a home in Tabernacle. Our name reflects our location.

As we continue our journey, new parishioners replace the old; new parish leaders emerge, building on the foundations laid by those who went before, and new Deacons minister among us in our quest for holiness and service: Joseph DeLuca, Steven Bonocore, Kenneth Domzalski and Anthony Repice. We are thankful for this parish and with God’s help we will continue to add to the faith of the entire community through the gifts which the Spirit calls out to us. We continue to be a work in progress, people on a journey seeking to experience the glimpses of hope that God provides in our parish.

Our mission is clear: Holy Eucharist Church, a Catholic Community in the Roman tradition, called by God and united in our belief in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our mission as members of the body of Christ is to gather and be nourished through the Word and Eucharist: and in so doing reach out in love to all others.

Material for this summary was merged, summarized, and edited from the 1982 Holy Eucharist Church Dedication Booklet, the 1992 and 2002 Parish Directories, interviews with parishioners, “Upon This Rock”, The history of the Trenton Diocese by Monsignor Joseph Shenrock, and the 50^th Anniversary booklet of St, Mary of the Lakes Parish.

Joseph M. Laufer

HE-final-072707 3,608 words

Church of the Holy Eucharist, Tabernacle, NJ
and
Parroquia San Judas Tadeo, Quito, Ecuador:
Sister Parishes

Church of St. Jude, Quito, Ecuador

Created 2/21/99 - jml

Church of the Holy Eucharist, Tabernacle, NJ and Parroquia San Judas Tadeo, Quito, Ecuador: Sister Parishes

Church of St. Jude, Quito, Ecuador

Created 2/21/99 - jml

Church of the Holy Eucharist, Tabernacle, NJ
and
Parroquia San Judas Tadeo, Quito, Ecuador:
Sister Parishes