Transfiguration dedicates statue from merged parish
Kristin Lukowski of The Michigan Catholic
Published August 24, 2007
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Kristin Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic
Fr. Andrew Wesley, third from left, prepares to bless the statue of Our Lady Help of Christians,a newaddition to Transfiguration Parish in Detroit. |
Detroit Former parishioners of Our Lady Help of Christians Parish, Detroit, who now attend Transfiguration Parish have something familiar to welcome them to their new parish.
Transfiguration has a new addition of a stone statue of Our Lady Help of Christians, the Blessed Mother gently holding a smiling baby Jesus. The statue came from the former Our Lady Help of Christians Parish, which merged last year into Transfiguration to create Transfiguration-Our Lady Help of Christians Parish.
New homes
Where some of the other sacred items from closed churches went:
From St. Anthony Parish:
Sacred Heart statue to Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Detroit
Blessed Mother statue to St. Paul of Tarsus, Clinton Township
St. Joseph statue to Most Holy Trinity, Detroit
Baptismal font to St. Anne, Warren
Funeral candle stands to St. Cyprian, Riverview
Altar cross to St. Joan of Arc, St. Clair Shores
Marble angels to SS. Peter and Paul, Detroit
St. Martin de Porres statue to Our Lady of Mount Tabor Monastery, Ortonville
From St. Brendan Parish:
St. Joseph and Blessed Mother statues to St. Kenneth, Plymouth
Wood crucifix to Our Lady of the Lakes, Waterford Township
From Guardian Angels Parish:
Tabernacle and altar to St. Paul of Tarsus, Clinton Township
Infant of Prague to Monastery of the Blessed Sacrament, Farmington Hills
St. Joseph statue to St. Kieran, Shelby Township
Sacred Heart statue to St. Rene Goupil, Sterling Heights
Stations of the Cross to Our Lady of Lourdes, River Rouge
Crucifix to St. Thecla, Clinton Township
Blessed Mother statue to St. Ephrem, Sterling Heights
Blessed Mother statue to St. Hugo of the Hills school, Bloomfield Hills
Processional cross to Guardian Angels, Clawson
From Martyrs of Uganda Parish:
Tabernacle to St. Blase
St. Patrick statue to Most Holy Trinity, Detroit
St. Joseph statue to Sacred Heart, Roseville
Blessed Mother statue to St. Mary school, St. Clair
Blessed Mother statue to St. Anastasia, Troy
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Kristin Lukowski | The Michigan Catholic
The Our Lady Help of Christians Statue is now at Transfiguration Parish, Detroit. | | Last week, on the Feast of the Assumption, Transfiguration pastor Fr. Andrew Wesley rededicated the statue at its new home on the lawn of Transfiguration between the church and the rectory.
"Response has been good," he said of the addition of the statue, which has been painted with gold trim. He joked that with the newly dedicated statue as well as the new statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which also came from Our Lady Help of Christians Parish, it was starting to look like a shrine outside the church.
The Our Lady Help of Christians statue was one of many sacred items saved from closing parishes, or parishes merging into other parishes, that was then distributed to another church. Several churches closed last year, meaning that items such as statues, crucifixes, chalices and monstrances were made available to other parishes.
Other parishes in the vicariate one of 16 geographical groupings within the archdiocese got first pick before the items were made available to parishes throughout the archdiocese.
For example, St. Rene Goupil, Sterling Heights, received three statues, now on display in the church building, from closed churches. A Sacred Heart of Jesus statue, from the former Guardian Angels Parish in Detroit, is now under a skylight on a stone pedestal in the gathering space of the parish. Also there are statues of St. Agnes and St. Teresa of Avila, both originally from their namesake parishes, which merged into Martyrs of Uganda, Detroit, 1989. Martyrs of Uganda closed in 2006.
Suzanne Gruden, director of parish services at St. Rene Goupil, said that although the statues represent a other than the one for which her parish is named, it's still important to keep such historical pieces in the parishes. Former parishioners of Guardian Angels have attended Mass at the parish just to see the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus from that parish, she said, some moved to tears that St. Rene Goupil is continuing the original parish's tradition.
"They're wonderful conversation pieces," she said.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus statue is made up of seven colors of marble, Gruden said. "It's really something," she said.
At Transfiguration, the Our Lady Help of Christians statue was dedicated after a morning holy day Mass, during which the congregation processed outside and prayed a decade of the rosary while Fr. Wesley sprinkled holy water on and then incensed the statue. It sits on a new base of marble harvested from the ocean.
Fr. Wesley said the rededication is not only a sign of the merger of the two parishes, but the unity that comes with it. St. Ladislaus Parish, Hamtramck, is a cluster partner of Transfiguration-Our Lady Help of Christians.
The statue was installed earlier this summer, and because it weighs more than 1,000 pounds, Fr. Wesley figures, Krot Funeral Home in Hamtramck, with their pulleys, had to help transport the statue and lift it into place. Eighteen pennies placed under the statue keep it level, he said.
There's a bit more outdoor landscaping to do around the, but people have already been stopping as they drive by to take a few pictures or to say a quick prayer, Fr. Wesley said. He said it's become something of a "focal point" for at least the outside of the church.
After Our Lady Help of Christians celebrated its last Mass late last year, much of the church's contents including pews, the altar, vestments and sacred vessels were sent to the fledgling Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Poland. The church building was planned to become an Islamic center.
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