• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
        • Sports News
        • Official Clergy Assignments
        • Schools News
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Question Corner
          • George Weigel
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie & Television Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
        • Recipes
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
        • CR Media platforms
        • Electronic Edition
  • Advertising
  • Shop
        • Purchase Photos
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • CR Radio
  • News Tips
  • Subscribe
The new worship space at the Church of the Nativity in Timonium features large windows behind the altar. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Rebuilt 2.0: Nativity parish dedicates new church

September 8, 2017
By Paul McMullen
Filed Under: Eastern Vicariate, Feature, Local News, News, Parishes

TIMONIUM – A Catholic parish at the forefront of the New Evangelization celebrated the opening of its new worship space Sept. 8.

Archbishop William E. Lori led the Church of the Nativity and its pastor, Father Michael White, in the solemn dedication of its church and altar. They are the centerpieces of a $15 million project at a parish where weekend Masses draw 4,000 and it had run out of space to fulfill its burgeoning mission.

Mike Kovacs, chair of the strategic planning and building team at the Church of the Nativity, Timonium, presents a set of blueprints to Archbishop William E. Lori during the church’s dedication ceremonies and Mass, Sept. 8. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

“This structure is meant to express not only the size of your parish,” Archbishop Lori said in his homily, “but also its vitality, coupled with hope and vision for the future.”

On the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the first half of a 1-hour, 31-minute liturgy evoked the Easter Vigil.

The only illumination during the first 49 minutes came from morning light – dimmed by screens – coming through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind the altar; exit signs; and spotlights that at turns focused attention on the choir, the ambo and the rites being performed by Archbishop Lori.

Only after he had blessed the church; placed relics of St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Katherine Drexel and St. John Paul II in the mensa of the altar; anointed it and observed acolytes incensing the altar; did the house lights come on and the screens behind the altar lift to let in sunlight filtered through substantial shade trees.

“We wanted a brighter space,” Tom Corcoran, pastoral associate, said before the liturgy. “We’ve invested a lot in the lighting. Father White likes to say, ‘lighting is architecture.’ It allows us to highlight the beauty, solemnity and mystery of the consecration and the eucharistic prayer.”

An altar server lights a wall candle in the new worship center at Church of the Nativity in Timonium during the church’s dedication Mass, Sept. 8. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Father White’s background includes serving as priest secretary to Cardinal William H. Keeler in 1995, when the aforementioned St. John Paul II visited Baltimore. He became pastor of Nativity a year later.

He and Corcoran have gained national acclaim for their 2012 book, “Rebuilt,” which drew inspiration from Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church in California and other evangelical churches in outlining how Nativity brought back those who had stopped practicing the faith.

Program acknowledgements listed dozens of staff, such as Kristin DeVan, a creative associate who served as lector, and volunteers, such as Mary Claire Goff, a parish council member.

A co-leader of the 175 who volunteer on the café staff, Goff is among those who credit Father White with strengthening their faith.

“I knew something was missing in my life when I came to Nativity,” said Goff, who did so at the invitation of a neighbor, Debbie Yokum. “I found peace here. I wasn’t being judged, I was welcomed, and I love Father White. The way he draws you in with his message (homily), it helps your faith, puts it in terms of your life, and how it can help you.”

That message was previously delivered in a less inviting space.

Founded in 1968 out of the southern portion of St. Joseph in Cockeysville, under the leadership of Monsignor Charles F. Meisel, the only other pastor Nativity has had, the parish originally worshipped in Ridgeley Middle School until June 1971, when its church was dedicated by Cardinal Lawrence Shehan.

Archbishop William E. Lori, left, and Pastor Father Michael J. White celebrate the dedication Mass of the new worship space at the Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Sept. 8. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Inspired by the reforms of Vatican II, brown dominated the old church, which sat 550 and did not have kneelers.

The new one does, along with Stations of the Cross lining the interior back wall and a pair of 16-feet-by-9-feet video screens on walls that flank the altar. The floor seats 1,000 in a gently sloping semicircle, with plans to add another 500 seats in the balcony.

“When I first walked in,” said JoAnne Cianfichi, who is involved in the parish’s Missions Ministry, “I said to myself, ‘Yes, you know God is here.’”

In addition to state of the art lighting, audio is piped in not just to the lengthy Narthex, which leads to the Vision Café and the Crying Loft, but the restrooms.

A hallway connects the gathering space to the old church. Besides expanding the parking lot from 275 to 375 spaces and making obsolete standing-room-only Masses, the project frees the old church to better serve a burgeoning youth program.

Nativity provides formation for 450 children in grade 5s and younger, and another 350 in middle and high school. While it’s not adding any new programs, it now can better accommodate growing families.

“You want to give every child a firm foundation in the faith,” said Corcoran, himself the father of seven. “It was frustrating when we didn’t have space, even for younger children. Parents say, ‘when do something for my kid, you’re doing something for me.’”

The new worship center at the Church of the Nativity in Timonium includes a café for parishioners to continue fellowship after Mass. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

In addition to the café, “Vision” is the name of the parish fundraising campaign that received donations from approximately 1,300 families, individuals and other entities. Its honorary chairmen were Frank Kelly and Jim Smith, a former State Senator and Baltimore County Executive, respectively.

Before the final blessing, Stephanie Clancy, chairwoman of the parish financial council, informed Archbishop Lori that the project came in “ahead of schedule, within budget and with no long-term debt.”

Corcoran said the financing did involve a “bridge loan.”

The project was overseen by Lewis Contractors, of Owings Mills, and involved 30 other firms, including an altar from Albl Oberammergau Liturgical Art, based in the German town famous for its elaborate staging of the Passion Play every 10 years.

“This was a nice team effort,” said Bryan Rowe, project manager. “There are plenty of construction projects that don’t go like this.”

The morning began outside the entrance to the church, with the presentation of the blueprints and a ceremonial key to Archbishop Lori, who quipped, “I will try it all around the property.”

A new cafe at the Church of the Nativity in Timonium features a contemporary design. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

In addition to Father White, concelebrants included Bishop Denis J. Madden and Father Lawrence Kumanda Sakala, a visiting priest.

Nativity will hold open its doors to all Sept. 10, with its regular Sunday Masses at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m., noon and 5:30 p.m., with a parish festival featuring food trucks and big screens showing the Ravens’ season opener.

The parish’s conferences on evangelization have been rebranded Rebuilt, with the next scheduled for April 2018.

“We’re not growing because of any new (housing) developments,” Corcoran said of the parish. “We’re intentionally growing, by reaching out to the un-churched and the de-churched. We want to share with others, this is what’s possible, God is still moving people. We hope it’s an encouragement to other parishes.

“You hear people say, ‘Nobody cares about God anymore.’ We know that’s not true.”

 

 

Email Paul McMullen at pmcmullen@CatholicReview.org

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Paul McMullen

Paul McMullen, a resident of Austin, Texas, served as the managing editor of the Catholic Review from 2008 until his retirement in September 2021.

The author of two books, Paul has been involved in local media since age 12, when he began delivering The News American to 80 homes in his neighborhood. He began his journalism career with the Capital-Gazette Newspapers in Anne Arundel County, and spent more than 25 years as a sports writer for The Sun in Baltimore. His favorite writing assignments have included the Summer Olympics in Australia and Greece, the Archdiocese of Baltimore's response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and “Feet for Francis,” a 2015 walking pilgrimage from the Baltimore Basilica to Philadelphia to see Pope Francis.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

| MOST POPULAR |

  • All are welcome: Finding a home at Mount St. Joseph
  • Priest who offered up cancer for clerical abuse victims says he was healed at Lourdes
  • Catholic pro-life activist Mark Houck acquitted of federal charges
  • Pope clarifies remarks about homosexuality and sin
  • New translation tweaks to sacrament of penance take effect this Lent

| Latest Local News |

Clarksville school shapes educators in faith formation

From robotics to hip-hop: Elementary schools offer wide range of clubs

Tuition at Catholic high schools in Baltimore archdiocese significantly lower than other area private schools

| Latest World News |

Affordable child care key component of post-Roe response, advocates say

Ukraine’s embattled religious orders keep faith and hope alive amid war

Speakers address how local churches can protect lives of mothers, unborn children from domestic violence

| Catholic Review Radio |

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Real Life. Real Faith. 

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • 4 tips for building a media-smart family
  • Affordable child care key component of post-Roe response, advocates say
  • Movie Review: ’80 for Brady’
  • Ukraine’s embattled religious orders keep faith and hope alive amid war
  • Here is the simplest way to share faith with kids
  • Speakers address how local churches can protect lives of mothers, unborn children from domestic violence
  • Clarksville school shapes educators in faith formation
  • Papal farm, gardens will be home to new center promoting sustainability
  • Pope, Anglican, Presbyterian leaders push South Sudanese to make peace

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2023 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED