ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, June 26, 1996 TAG: 9606260003
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: FRANCIS STEBBINS STAFF WRITER
At 4:45 on a Saturday afternoon, the building on Cambria Road that houses Good Shepherd Lutheran Church was alive with activity. Gloria Guarino deposited her two dishes of lasagna on the kitchen counter as her husband, Al, settled himself on a back pew for prayers before Mass.
Yes, Mass.
On Saturday nights, the Lutheran church building is the temporary home for more than 100 Roman Catholics who have started a fourth New River Valley parish they call Holy Spirit.
A home for Sunday services and a permanent presence in Christiansburg may mean renting an empty store until the new congregation is large enough to afford building a church on the five acres the Catholic Diocese of Richmond has bought for them on Independence Boulevard near Christiansburg High School.
"Those are the two goals we're working toward," the Rev. Louis Benoit said as people of all ages began arriving for the service. "It's so very kind of the Lutherans to have us here, but we're still guests. We need our own place."
Benoit said Holy Spirit is the result of an experiment started in the summer of 1994 after church leaders realized that Christiansburg was the largest town in the diocese with no Catholic church. Meetings in the Knights of Columbus hall over several weeks showed that the growth of Blacksburg and Christiansburg, coupled with heavy traffic doubling the driving time on U.S. 460 between the towns, would sustain a fourth New River Valley congregation.
Holy Spirit officially became a parish 11 months ago. It now has 68 families, some of whom came from the 500-family St. Mary's in north Blacksburg or St. Jude's of Radford.
A shortage of ordained men in the Catholic church requires priests like Benoit to serve two or more congregations. Assigned to Holy Family Church in Pearisburg, "Father Louis" lives there and conducts worship and parish business throughout the week.
Christiansburg's needs fill his spare time. While the Guarinos and others were getting ready for the monthly fellowship supper, the priest was in his study counseling a parishioner.
Meanwhile, a half dozen musicians directed by Marijane Whitescarver were tuning up in a corner of the nave. Leaving the electronic organ to its owners, the Lutherans, the players, covering a wide age range, practiced hymns of both traditional and contemporary praise style. Three girls, Kristi Melendez and Kimberly and Melissa Mekita, played flutes and sang. Others played guitars.
Ned Letto, reared Catholic in Chicago, came to the New River Valley 23 years ago with Hubbell Lighting. He lives and works in Christiansburg, so until the new parish was started 18 months ago he had to drive through the congestion of U.S. 460 to St. Mary's Church in Blacksburg.
At Holy Spirit, Letto collects and records the monetary offering and assembles the weekly bulletin. His wife, Pat, also has several regular duties, including getting the bulletins copied.
The Lettos like keeping busy in their new parish, which Ned Letto said gives ownership "you don't find in a big parish." His wife agreed, adding that "Holy Spirit really has a big family feel."
Others, including Robert Kelly, a retiree from Connecticut who moved to Riner three years ago, said they, too, prefer a small church.
Kelly, who was preparing for his role as lay lector for the Saturday Mass, had attended St. Jude's in Radford until it was moved farther from his home. Now, he says, he's excited to be part of a parish new enough to enjoy change.
A Virginia Tech staff member, Harry Ewald, who lives in Christiansburg, used to attend St. Mary's. He was among those who dug potatoes in the big patch behind the Lutheran church when the Catholics joined the Lutherans last fall in harvesting a crop for the New River Valley poor.
This joint outreach, Benoit said, is an example of what two small parishes, once bitterly divided by historical events and doctrinal differences, are doing today out of compassion.
U.S. Catholic, a national magazine supporting more lay involvement in the church, said in its May issue that, despite many changes, control remains with the ordained. But in new, small parishes, Benoit pointed out, laity do enjoy more responsibility.
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