The Patient Journey of Holy Cross
A new church symbolizes a community’s faith, perseverance and solidarity
By Rich Reece/ Pictures by Denmark Photo & Video
This year on the First Sunday of Advent, the parish of Holy Cross in Durham will dedicate a magnificent new church. But the old church, where Holy Cross’s predominantly African American congregation has worshiped since 1952, will be present as well. The wall behind the altar and the baptismal font will be faced with stone from the earlier church, a symbol and reminder of a fiercely maintained parish identity, and a long, patient journey to this joyful moment.
In Tar Heel Catholics, A History of Catholicism in North Carolina, author William Powers calls Holy Cross “unusual, if not unique.”
It is an African American parish, a remnant of the age of segregation when every major town in North Carolina had a ‘white’ church and a ‘colored’ church. Here, no one complains. In fact, any effort to change the character of Holy Cross would be resisted by its parishioners, many of them lifelong members of the congregation.
The journey of Holy Cross began in 1939, when the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus established it as a mission to evangelize the black community. Powers relates that the founder, Jesuit Fr. William Risacher, found only one black Catholic family in Durham, but celebrated Mass in a dental office, then a beauty parlor and finally the rectory chapel, until Bishop Vincent S. Waters consecrated the little stone church on Alston Avenue in 1952.
This affirmation of the black congregation occurred – Powers calls it “indicative of the complexity of the racial situation in the state” – when Bishop Waters was beginning to mandate integration of the churches in the diocese, a plan that usually involved closing the colored parishes and directing the white congregations to accept black members. The result was a setback for African American evangelization: Bereft of their familiar church communities, uncomfortably tolerated by the white congregations, many African American Catholics joined other churches.
How did Holy Cross keep its identity? “We fought for it,” says Gloria Burton, past chair of the parish council. Longtime parishioner Helen Hudson, a catechist and community leader, agrees. “We had numbers,” she says, “and strong advocates with the bishop, especially Charles Blackmon and George Thorne.”
Hudson, in the years when Mass was still celebrated in Fr. Risacher’s rectory, was a student at the North Carolina College for Negroes, today North Carolina Central University (NCCU), adjacent to the church property. Like Hudson and Burton, many members and leaders of Holy Cross parish would come from the student body of NCCU. Ironically, the needs of the university would gradually consume the property on which the church stood. By 2003, the original parish site of 20 acres had been reduced to four.
At the same time, the parish was studying expansion. James Sansom, a member of the steering committee that guided the parish as it decided on a future course, explains that the church had embarked on a self-study. “We tried to clarify who we were, where we had been, what we could do in the future to enhance and enable our ministries.”
It was during this period of community discernment that NCCU came forward with a desire to purchase the final parcel of church property from the Maryland Jesuits, and the exploration turned to the possibility of purchasing new land and erecting a new church.
The journey to a new church is one that many parishes in the rapidly growing Diocese of Raleigh have made. But the small size of Holy Cross parish – perhaps 300 families – and the number of “stakeholders” – the parish, the diocese, the Maryland Jesuit Province, NCCU and the State of North Carolina -- presented unusual challenges. The Maryland Province began by purchasing 20 acres of land about a mile down the road (20 acres is the minimum set by the diocese for a new parish property). The parish initiated a capital campaign with a goal of $900,000, and received pledges totaling more than $1 million. Additional funding came from the sale of the old site to the state, and from the Diocese of Raleigh, which provided a loan, including some interest-free loan funds.
Yet, for this tight-knit congregation, there was more involved than business. “We have all prayed every week for this effort,” Gloria Burton says. The journey to a new church was a spiritual one, with some moments that were exhilarating and others that were discouraging.
Was there ever a low point? Burton smiles: “I think when we started to see what we could afford and what we couldn’t. Some of the initial vision had to be scaled down or postponed.” Chris Brown, in charge of the Landscaping Committee for the new site, says, “We had to decide whether to do just one of the things we’d envisioned – just a sanctuary or just an activity center or just an educational wing -- or to do a little of each one.”
James Sansom adds, “When you’re presented with a plan from an architect, he shows you the best of the best. Then you have to digest that and see what’s the best you can really do with the resources you have. That takes some time of going back and forth.” Gloria cites Fr. Donald Sterling, S.J., who spoke with parishioners on several occasions to help them iron out priorities and get on board with the vision.
“One of the foundational components of being a Christian is faith,” Chris Brown says with a smile, “and when you’re presented with taking out a loan for 2/3 of what you’ve saved up, that takes a lot of faith. Trying to decide what’s the difference between being faithful and being a good steward – that’s hard.”
What strikes someone who talks about this process with a few of the parish leaders is the extent to which the effort has been collaborative. This is a parish which does things together, in which everyone’s opinion is solicited and matters. That “going back and forth” that James Sansom talks about may require an extra dose of patience, but to this community, not surprisingly, inclusion is crucial.
The new Holy Cross Church is, first of all, huge compared with the old church, which, according to Gloria Burton, seated 85 “with chairs in the aisles.” The pine-forested acres around the church will be complemented, Chris Brown explains, by 350-400 plants.
“With the church and the whole site,” Brown says, “we wanted to retain as much as possible the feel of the old church. Unfortunately,” he smiles, “part of that feel was its… compactness.
“But we’ve used the stone from that building, and the walls and beams of the sanctuary are reminiscent of the high wooden walls in the old church. Outside, we’re going to have a children’s play area. And a little white gazebo with the statue of Mary inside has become something of a parish icon. Then we’ll have a meditation space that will incorporate a rose garden – the old rose garden was very important to us – and slate from the sidewalk at the earlier site. There are plans at some point to build a columbarium and working that into the space.”
Holy Cross pastor Fr. Frank O’Connor, S.J., has a further vision for the new site. He talks about Ignatian Partners, a program where small groups of parishioners are partnered by Jesuits in evenings of prayer based on the Exercises of St. Ignatius. “It would be wonderful,” he says, “if we could establish Holy Cross as a regional center of Ignatian spirituality. Right now the closest such centers are in Atlanta or Maryland.”
After touring the old Holy Cross and the new site, Fr. O’Connor, Chris Brown, James Sansom, Gloria Burton, Helen Hudson and Facility Expansion Steering Committee member Yvonne Fisher are asked to pose for photos in front of the respective churches.
James agrees graciously, but just a bit reluctantly. “There are a lot more people,” he says, “who belong in this picture.”
Walk in Patience
Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4: 1-6