Enhancing the Community
St. Thomas More, Chapel Hill
The Diocese of Raleigh includes many parishes with rich histories. To visit St. Thomas More Church in Chapel Hill in 2009, however, is to be nearly overwhelmed by the future. Dust in the air, temporary fences partitioning almost the entire campus and the racket of large equipment advertise a massive expansion of the parish facility. The parish is building a new gym and athletic fields, an art and music building, a parish center with a social hall, meeting rooms, a library, a nursery and new parish offices. Renovations in the ten-year-old church will include new reconciliation rooms, a new sacristy and a new installation for the tabernacle in the center of the sanctuary in a manner consistent with the building’s original architecture. The property will also add parking space and driveways.
Perhaps enhancement would be as good a word as expansion to describe all these changes, which are slated for completion in summer 2010. “They’re not about numerical growth,” says St. Thomas More Pastor Father John Durbin, “but about serving the parish and the wider community better. Our parishioners have been extremely generous.”
The parish has also been extremely eco-conscious. Parish Administrator Carlos Lima, who has overseen the construction, explained the care which has been taken to conserve resources by making the project energy-efficient. Among those measures: A cistern by the parish center will gather rain water to run the restrooms, and a reclaimed water line will irrigate the athletic fields. The parish center is oriented to the south to gather as much daylight and heat as possible in the winter and will employ reflective glass to minimize energy used in summer cooling. Carpets, tiles and paint will all use organic compounds, and LED lighting will be installed outdoors wherever possible.
St. Thomas More began in 1922 as a mission of Immaculate Conception in Durham, serving half a dozen members students at the College of North Carolina (later UNC). In 1925, Bishop William J. Hafey met William B. Carmichael, an official at the College, who was considering becoming Catholic. Carmichael not only joined the Church, he helped establish a Catholic presence on the campus and became a leading benefactor of the faith community. By 1940, when the mission was designated a parish, more than 200 Catholic students were part of its congregation; they attended Mass in the Hill Hall auditorium on campus. The parish grew swiftly during WWII, in part because of the U.S. Navy Pre-Flight School in Chapel Hill. After the war, Mass was held in Gerrard Hall. Ground was broken for a new church in 1955, on land donated by William Carmichael, who turned the first spade of earth at the ceremony. The church was dedicated by Bishop Vincent S. Waters in 1957, the school in 1964.
The current church was dedicated in 1998 on property along Carmichael Street. Today, Father Durbin says, there are 2500 registered families at St. Thomas More, “around 10,000 people, including a vibrant and active Hispanic community.” Staff personnel come from seven different countries, and the parish operates some 110 different ministries.