DATE: Saturday, May 31, 1997                TAG: 9705310041

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   97 lines

NEW CHURCH PRODUCT OF CITY'S GROWTH

THE EARLY Christians didn't worship in churches. They had no stained-glass windows. No steeples. No bells.

Like the first to follow Christ, a new Catholic church planned for the city's Hickory section has no home - yet. Pastor James E. Gordon expects to hold religious education in parishioners' houses. He hopes to persuade an area school to allow the congregation to hold Sunday Mass in its auditorium.

``This is an exciting time for a parish,'' said Gordon, the former pastor of Church of the Holy Angels in Portsmouth. ``A church is a community of believers, not a building or a physical structure. It's the body of Christ. We will be a parish in the true sense of the word, meeting in people's homes, borrowing spaces where we can.''

Chesapeake's newest Catholic church doesn't even have a name, Gordon said. It was created by carving out a parish from the southern boundaries of Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Great Bridge. Now that the Catholic Diocese of Richmond has approved the split, the congregation will begin to build a church - from the ground up.

Gordon hopes the congregation can begin celebrating Mass together by the end of the month.

He has already enlisted the aid of one of the parish's new members, Mark Urben, to begin fixing up administrative offices in a house on the site where the new church will stand at 1544 South Battlefield Blvd.

Mark and Cindy Urben are involving their entire family in the effort. Mark, a professional builder, volunteered to obtain city permits for the offices and to do the carpentry work.

The Urbens, longtime Prince of Peace parishioners, sold the Catholic Diocese of Richmond the property for the new church this spring. They had operated Windhaven Family Fun, a miniature golf recreation center, on the site for years.

Cindy and Mark Urben plan to continue teaching religious education at the new parish. And Cindy wants her four children, who range in age from 9 to 15, to be very active as well.

Beyond organizing volunteers, the parish also will have to raise money to build the new church, Gordon said. The Catholic diocese purchased the land, but it will be up to the congregation to raise funds to pay for the new building.

Like so much in Chesapeake, the new parish is a product of the city's enormous growth.

Prince of Peace's congregation has exploded recently, booming from 1,100 families in 1993 to 1,800 families today, said Father Christian J. Haydinger, the church's pastor. Nearly 600 families will be assigned to the new church.

Cindy Urben also hopes to invite new families to the church.

``I love Father Chris and I hate to leave him, but this is an opportunity to reach out to other people and bring them in - maybe people who thought Prince of Peace was too big,'' she said.

The parish's boundaries will follow approximately the same areas served by Hickory High School, Gordon said.

While no one will be forced to switch churches, Gordon does plan to encourage families in southern Chesapeake to attend the fledgling parish.

``It's going to be difficult for people to leave, because they love their church,'' Gordon said. ``While some are excited about the new parish starting from scratch, there's also some sadness. A lot of people have been together for a long period of time. A number called me when they found out I will be the pastor, saying they want to be involved, so that's really encouraging for me.''

Gordon plans to talk about plans for the new parish at Masses June 14 at Prince of Peace. He also will lead organizational meetings to prepare the congregation to begin meeting for Sunday liturgy by the end of the month.

Gordon has been talking to the Chesapeake public schools about using their auditoriums. Hickory High School's auditorium, one of the last rooms in the new school to be completed, has not yet been approved for general use, however.

But Sunday worship services are only one part of a church's mission, Gordon said. He also plans to begin recruiting volunteers for social ministries, youth leaders, eucharistic ministers and other committee leaders.

Founding a new church is an enormous task. But a Prince of Peace study commission looked at the issue for nearly two years and found the parish had no other choice, Haydinger said. Even four weekend services - three on Sunday and one Saturday night - can't accommodate the church's entire congregation.

``It just gets so big when you have Sunday liturgy that people are standing at two of the Masses,'' said Haydinger, who has been pastor of Prince of Peace for four years. ``My concern is that people stand so long and then they start to go elsewhere.''

For parishioners, the split into two parishes is like any major change in a person's life. Haydinger compared it to a parent's mixed feelings about a child going off to college for the first time.

``There really is a sense of excitement but also a sense of sadness,'' Haydinger said. ``Your heart says it's right, but there's still the pain of good-bye. Many of these parishioners (who are leaving) have been part of this community long before I arrived.'' MEMO: Prince of Peace will hold two organizational meetings to discuss

the new parish. Meetings will be held at Prince of Peace June 16 at 7:30

p.m and June 22 at 2 p.m. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot

Pastor James E. Gordon at the site of the new Catholic church at

1544 South Battlefield Blvd. ``This is an exciting time for a

parish,'' he says.

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