This week we celebrate the Anniversary of the Dedication of our church building which took place on October 24, 1982. The Anniversary of the Dedication of a church is a solemnity in the life of a parish.

The seeds of our parish community were planted decades earlier when Monsignor Joseph Cassidy, then Rector of the Cathedral of Christ the King, led a bible study at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Orville May in Roswell. 

In 1959 the parish was established as a mission of Christ the King under the patronage of St. Thomas Aquinas. Ten families began gathering for Sunday Masses at the old Community Center on Oak Street in Roswell.  As the Roswell/Alpharetta area grew in the 1960s, the Roswell mission moved from the Community Center to the Fulton Federal Bank building, and later to North Roswell and Mimosa Elementary Schools. In 1972, Archbishop Thomas Donnellan raised the mission to full parish status. Ground was broken on a 17-acre plot on Rucker Road, named for Simeon Rucker, one of the area’s first settlers. What was then a rural landscape began its transformation when the first structure, our current Parish Hall, was built. 

In 1982 our permanent church was completed and was dedicated on October 24. Notable features include a stained glass rose window and Stations of the Cross, which were donated from the chapel of the former St. Joseph’s Infirmary in downtown Atlanta. 

Consider the experiences shared in our spiritual home on earth over these many years, the friendships forged, the sacraments celebrated and the faith fostered. For all of this, we give thanks to God.

Prayer of Gratitude on the Anniversary of the Dedication of our church
God of all time, your love has been revealed to us again and again in this sacred space.
For we have known you here in the joy of the newly baptized, risen from the waters of life,
in the radiance of a couple’s love, and in gathering around this table of reconciliation.
In laughter and pain, you have woven your story into ours here in this place.
May we ever be a people who dare to dream the vision you promised.
May this house be ever a place where the poor are honored, the broken are made whole,
and the lost are welcomed home. AMEN.