Who We Are?
The Beginnings
St. Mark is the only Roman Catholic Church in Habersham County. As such, it was meeting the needs of those who arrived at our doors but our pastor saw the need to reach beyond those confines. The church has stated the need to reach out to the peripheries and meet Christ within our midst, and our pastor began to act on this missionary initiative in 2011. (Evangelii Gaudium 27) To facilitate this idea, he looked all around the area and what he found was an out-of-use school building. He saw the potential and the idea of St. Dominic Chapel was born.
The Beginnings
St. Mark is the only Roman Catholic Church in Habersham County. As such, it was meeting the needs of those who arrived at our doors but our pastor saw the need to reach beyond those confines. The church has stated the need to reach out to the peripheries and meet Christ within our midst, and our pastor began to act on this missionary initiative in 2011. (Evangelii Gaudium 27) To facilitate this idea, he looked all around the area and what he found was an out-of-use school building. He saw the potential and the idea of St. Dominic Chapel was born.
Serving the Local Community
St. Mark has been experiencing growth since 2013. We have had several growth spurts and we have grown from 370 registered families to 869.
About the building: It was originally constructed in 1942 with an extension added in 1955. It was later used as the South Habersham Sixth Grade Academy. Once it was no longer needed. It was closed and remained property of the school system. We were able to rent the facility due to the generosity of many on the School Board, including our Parish Member Don Corbett.
Our first use of the facility was to offer tutoring for the “at-risk” kids. Many of the teachers volunteered to help these students. This began in October 2015 and we had about 56 students and 13 teachers.
We added to that the school of religion. Moved from the parish in Clarkesville to the school so that Wednesday night classes would all be housed on one campus. We began with 255 students. This has continued ever since.
Beginning of the Refurbishment
Seeing the success of the building, we decided to purchase the property. This was finalized in February of 2016. With this done, we began work tearing out lockers and blackboards, and replacing the hallway floors. One of the first things we needed was a worship space. We decided the media center was the best and was our first really big step in renovation. It came out beautifully and now is used for a Thursday night Eucharistic Mass, as well as a Saturday Evening Eucharistic celebrations. We were able to utilize the gymnasium space for large gatherings and celebrations while we continued to improve upon the existing conditions with paint and taking out unnecessary items. Then we realized we needed a second large meeting space. So, we took the two classrooms from behind the stage area and made them into one large meeting room! Once this space began to be used, we realized there were so many more projects we could work on. Another project was to turn the two classrooms at the end of the main hall into one large room. This came out fabulous, as well. Now, we get to the big job. The refurbishment of the entire gymnasium space. This is to be the main worship space with a baptismal font and built-in risers and will be the centerpiece of the renovations that will come on the rest of the property. This is the space from the back doors of the former gymnasium, after the stage and all the classroom areas were removed.
