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Our Lady Help of Christians Parish celebrates 40 years 

Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory presided at a Mass on Sept. 19, 2020 at Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Waldorf celebrating the parish's 40th anniversary. Standing next to Archbishop Gregory, from left to right, are Father Charles Cortinovis, the archbishop's priest secretary; Deacon Richard Dubicki; and Father Benjamin Garcia, a parochial vicar at the parish. Behind them is a painting depicting the parish's patron saint, Mary as Our Lady Help of Christians. (CS photo/Mihoko Owada) 

For the parish of Our Lady Help of Christians in Waldorf, Maryland, “Bringing all to Christ, Sharing Christ with all and Being one in Christ” has been both the mission and at the heart of the community for the past four decades.

“Over the past 40 years our parish has seen many changes, but the pioneering and the spirit of evangelization of our founders has remained with us,” Father Alain Colliou, the parish’s pastor, said. “We have become more diverse in backgrounds and cultures, but we have remained united in the Eucharist and one in Christ.”

Our Lady Help of Christians Parish in Waldorf, Maryland, just completed a three-year capital campaign that supported the installation of a 65-foot steeple on the church building. Archbishop Gregory blessed the parish church's new steeple (above) and its new Adoration chapel before the Sept. 19, 2020 anniversary Mass. (CS photos/Mihoko Owada)

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of Our Lady Help of Christians Parish, Archbishop Gregory celebrated Mass at the church on Sept. 19, 2020.   

“This evening, we honor the hard work of our parishioners of Our Lady Help of Christians Parish for 40 years in the establishment and growth of this fine community of faith,” Archbishop Gregory said. “We have some of the pioneer families still laboring and supporting the Church from the first day of its existence.”

The archbishop recognized about one dozen of the parish’s founding members who were in attendance at the Mass.

“All of you should rejoice that it has been through God’s good favor and blessings that you celebrate this evening, no matter how long you have been – you realize that God’s generosity has made all of this possible and glorious from the beginning and this evening’s celebration,” he said. “For 40 years, this community has gathered to honor and praise God, and God has responded so generously.”

On Sept. 15, 1980, the parish of Our Lady Help of Christians was established in the growing Waldorf community after Father Peter Alliata, the founding pastor, was sent to St. Peter’s Parish, also in Waldorf, to gather families interested in forming a new parish.

Virginia McGraw, one of the parish’s founding members who has remained a parishioner to this day, explained that during the parish’s early days there was no physical church building. Saturday evening Masses were held at Good Shepherd Methodist Church and Sunday morning Masses were held at a local elementary school.

“At the time, we were families spread throughout the Waldorf area,” McGraw said. “We were divided into family teams and within those teams we had CCD classes, family gatherings, Bible studies and things of that nature.”

When the physical church building wasn’t built until nearly one decade after the parish’s establishment, McGraw said the families played a role in forming the building.

“We all had an integral part of developing the sense of the Church,” she said, adding that they participated in deciding what the building looked like and hiring the religious education director. “There was a sense of community and for the building itself we wanted to reflect that sense of community.”

The design of the church, she said, “lends itself to the community inclusion.” The parish doors lead into a large narthex which McGraw said has been used as a gathering space over the years.

Family members attend the anniversary Mass at Our Lady Help of Christian Church,. The parish includes members from diverse backgrounds, united in their Catholic faith. Mass goers wore face masks as a required safety precaution during the coronavirus pandemic. (CS photos/Mihoko Owada)

Father Colliou added that to this day, the parish’s one building helps symbolize the unity of the parish.

In June 1990, the parish building was completed and was dedicated and blessed by Cardinal James Hickey, then the archbishop of Washington.

McGraw, who was a member of the original parish council, is once again a member of the council.

Sharon Caniglia, another founding parishioner, said that while it was many years before the church had a building, “it was really the people that made up the church because it was such a caring, giving community from day one.”

“It’s just a place where you feel the warmth and the love of Christ through the people who belong to the parish, both back then and now,” she said. “It’s grown as a parish tremendously.”

For Steve Fisher, who, along with his wife Joy and their two children, have been at Our Lady Help of Christians since the early 2000s, the parish has been and continues to be “extremely welcoming,” he said.

“It’s a very busy church, but busy in a way which doesn’t impose on parishioners that I’ve found really comforting,” Fisher said.

When he first joined the parish, Fisher said he joined the community outreach committee, which helped serve the area through food and coat drives and by supporting local soup kitchens and shelters.

“In that community, I really got a sense of the human-to-human impact that a church can have,” Fisher said.

While both of his children who grew up in the parish’s CCD program have grown up and moved to different cities and he and his wife have since moved from Waldorf, Fisher said he willingly commutes to the parish for Mass and holds positions on both the parish and the finance councils.

Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory celebrates the 40th anniversary Mass at Our Lady Help of Christians Church, joined at left by the parish's pastor, Father Alain Colliou, and at right by Father Benjamin Garcia, its parochial vicar. (CS photo/Mihoko Owada)

Fisher said it is also the presence of Father Colliou that has kept him in the parish.

“(Father Colliou) is all in with his heart,” Fisher said. “He has done tremendous things to bring out the diversity of our church… His approach to our parish is all about focusing on the spiritual, growing our outreach, reaching more people and bringing more people into the Church. His leadership style is just infectious and really makes everybody want to contribute more.”

As the parish has adapted to the current situation with the coronavirus pandemic, Abigail Strawberry, who has been a parishioner for 25 years and serves as secretary on the parish council, said that the shutdown was difficult for her.

“When we shut down, it was really hard for someone so active in the parish,” she said. “I just missed it. I would say the church is my second home, but sometimes it’s my first home.”

Father Alain Colliou, the pastor of Our Lady Help of Christians Parish in Waldorf, gives Communion to a young man at the Sept. 19, 2020 Mass marking the parish's 40th anniversary. In the photo below, Father Benjamin Garcia, a parochial vicar at the parish, gives Communion to a girl attending the Mass. (CS photos/Mihoko Owada)

Father Colliou, who has been the pastor at Our Lady Help of Christians for the past 10 years, said that two things he appreciates about the parish are the welcoming community and the prayerful reverence.

“We see always in our church that the Holy Spirit is present,” he said. “We have a great devotion to Mary… and there is the sense that this is the house of God.”

And even beyond that, Father Colliou said that it is the joy of the parish that is contagious.

“If we do all that He wants us to do, our joy as a parish can help evangelize people to come be with us,” he said. “It is a joy to be here to see the joy of the people.”

The parish, Father Colliou said, reflects the diversity of the Waldorf community – with members with African, Filipino, Hispanic and African-American backgrounds, among others. “I’ve realized more and more that (the area and parish) has become more and more a reflection of the world,” he said.

“We very much try to do everything focused on the Eucharist,” Father Colliou said. “We talk about the unity of one in Christ... We are all brothers and sisters, having the same Father in heaven, and when we receive the Eucharist we become one in the Eucharist.”

Archbishop Gregory waves a greeting as he processes from the altar as the Sept. 19, 2020 40th anniversary Mass at Our Lady Help of Christians Church in Waldorf concluded. (CS photo/Mihoko Owada)

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