Diverse South Hill parish celebrates centennial
When Bishop Denis J. O’Connell dedicated Good Shepherd, South Hill, on August 27, 1922, he compared the small, white frame church to a mustard seed, that smallest of seeds that grows into a tree large enough for birds to nest in its branches.
“From small things grow great ones,” Good Shepherd parish council chairperson Jimmy Walters said. “From a small church comes great faith.”
One hundred years later, Good Shepherd has a congregation of around 200 people of all walks of life, with roots all over the world, from Northern Virginia to Nigeria.
“The parish is very multicultural,” said Father Raner Lucila, pastor of Good Shepherd. “We have Hispanics, Filipinos, Africans, Anglos. It’s so diverse, but they are so united somehow. The people all want something good for the parish. Their hearts are full of what is good for the community, and they work on that together.”
That spirit of many hands, one body, was reflected in the parish’s centennial celebration, held Sunday, Aug. 28. The day featured music, dancing and food from several traditions representing the congregation’s heritage, all preceded by a Mass concelebrated by Bishop Barry C. Knestout and Father Lucila.
Growing, growing, growing
Before the founding of Good Shepherd, Catholics in the area gathered once a month to celebrate Mass in their homes with the aid of a priest who traveled by train from Danville.
In 1922, Catherine Rudolph donated an acre of land on State Route 138 — three-and-one-half miles from South Hill — for the construction of a church, thereby planting the seeds for a new community.
“She persuaded many of her neighbors to volunteer their labor and materials,” Walters said. “She was instrumental in getting the parish going.”
The church was completed by the end of the summer: a black-and-white photo depicts it as it was in those early days, standing in a field of dried sunflowers.
By the fall of 1940, Bishop Peter Ireton invited the Franciscan Fathers of New York to take charge of Good Shepherd, which was a mission church of St. Richard, Emporia, at that time. Father Walter Hammon was the first Franciscan to celebrate Mass in South Hill in 1941.
As the parish flourished, it soon outgrew the little church in the field, and so, on Sunday, May 10, 1953, ground was broken for a new parish home to be built on U.S. Highway 1, two miles north of South Hill. The ceremony took place after the 10 o’clock Mass with about 50 parishioners and Father Kieran McMahon in attendance, according to a local newspaper article of the time.
The second Church of the Good Shepherd, a red brick church with oak pews, opened its doors that Christmas Eve, with the celebration of Midnight Mass.
South Hill was made its own parish in 1979, and by the 1990s, it needed more room.
“It was getting so that people were circled all around and couldn’t see around the piano,” Walters said, laughing.
A social hall was built in 1995; there, volunteers hosted bingo games to raise funds for a new church, which was built right alongside of the old one, turning the original building into a wing, in 2006.
“Today, it’s used as a classroom space for the children’s religious education classes,” Walters said, so that the second church still shares in the life of the parish.
Local, international service
Over the past 100 years, Good Shepherd has had 29 pastors and 23 parochial vicars, so liturgical minister Laura Bailey, along with a group of volunteers, work hard to keep ministries going.
“I know where everything is,” Bailey said, “so I try to be that stable presence.”
The parish has a food ministry, open every Tuesday, and also maintains a global outreach program, offering support to St. Joseph Busibo Church in the Diocese of Masaka, Uganda. Father John Kazibwe, pastor of Good Shepherd from 2009 to 2013, who was from that diocese, told them of the need, Bailey explained. Since then, Good Shepherd has raised money to build a church for the parish and for two large cisterns to collect water.
“We are a mission parish,” Bailey said. “We are not a wealthy parish. Many of the projects have been funded through the generosity of contributors. But we’ve done it well and we’ve been very dedicated.”
“There’s been challenges, being a small parish,” she said. “But it’s been wonderful. What better thing than to serve?”
Parishioner Alma Gutierrez, who has called Good Shepherd home for more than 20 years, volunteers by helping with the Spanish Mass celebrated each Saturday night.
“My dad brought us here when we moved from Mexico, in 1999,” she said. “I was confirmed here, and now my oldest daughter has just had her first Communion.”
“What I love most about being Catholic, and about this parish, is the beautiful, different cultures that we have,” she said. “We’re from Mexico, and we gather at this church, the Anglos gather at this church, there are a few families from Nigeria who gather here, the Filipino community gathers here. It’s amazing how we are all from different parts of the world, but we all come together as one.”
Opportunity for renewal
Parishioners hope that the anniversary celebration will serve to reinvigorate the parish in the wake of the pandemic, to strengthen its roots and help it to flourish.
“We have had some people who have not yet come back,” Bailey said. “We have many elderly parishioners who have concerns, so that’s understandable.”
The parish’s longtime prison ministry has been suspended over the past few years, Father Lucila said, “but we are trying to bring that back again” by gathering a team to provide pastoral care to Lunenburg Correctional Center.
Volunteers with the parish’s migrant ministry are working with the diocese to restart its work as well, Gutierrez said.
“Our community is not as big as it used to be, but we are working to get them back,” she said.
“It’s a hard time, it’s hard times right now. We’re in an age when people don’t want to talk about God. But we are trying to be sure to invite the people back again, for the anniversary,” she said. “It’s been exciting. People are calling and asking, ‘What can I bring?’”
Event organizers kept the spirit of the diverse but close-knit community in mind, Walters said, in planning the anniversary gathering. The event included games, entertainment and music, and representatives from each culture prepared presentations.
“It’s home,” Gutierrez said. “And it’s been such a blessing to me. That’s what amazes me about being Catholic. What’s such a blessing about this church is that we all gather together to celebrate.”