St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church - Columbia MD - Roman Catholic Churches on Waymarking.com

From the church website below:

History
Columbia, Maryland was founded in the late 1960’s to be a home for economic and social diversity, and St. John the Evangelist was established in 1967 to be the Catholic parish reflecting and celebrating the diversity of the community.

We are pleased to share these reminiscences of parishioners on the occasion of our parish’s 50th anniversary in 2017.


Catholic Review-
Columbia parish celebrates 50 years as a community united in diversity September 11, 2017
By Kit Cross
Beneath a bright blue sky, parishioners of St. John the Evangelist brought lawn chairs and blankets as they gathered on the lawn of the Wilde Lake Interfaith Center in Columbia Sept. 9 to celebrate a vigil Mass marking the parish’s 50th anniversary and the 40th anniversary of the parish’s Hispanic community.

Archbishop William E. Lori led the day’s bilingual Mass with music from both Spanish and English choirs. Joining in the celebration were 10 priests and two deacons, including Father Gerard Bowen, St. John’s current pastor, and associate pastors, Father Eugene Nickol, Father Ferdinand Ezenwachi and Father Leandro Fazolini, associate pastor.

Also among the celebrants was a face familiar to many longtime parishioners, Monsignor Richard Tillman, who was St. John’s pastor from 1977 to 2010.

St. John, home to 3,200 families, operates out of two interfaith centers in Columbia alongside congregations of various faith backgrounds. When Father Tillman arrived there were four different congregations, but today the Wilde Lake Interfaith center, which is undergoing a $1.5 million renovation of its gathering space, is shared by just St. John’s parish and a Methodist-Presbyterian congregation.

“It impressed me from the very beginning, people said we are going to try to stick together in this,” recalled Father Tillman during his homily. “There are going to be some high points and some low points, but we’re going to be together. We’re going to form something that says relationships are important.”

The concept of the interfaith center stems from the city’s own beginning 50 years ago during a time when the United States was still grappling with segregation.

Carolyn Arena, a St. John’s parishioner since 1969, recalled how James Rouse, the original planner of Columbia, purposefully designed the city to be open to anyone. People intentionally moved to Columbia, she said.

“The people who came here had to agree that they wanted to live a life of integration,” she said, “and the mix just worked.”

Type of Church: Church Status of Building: Actively in use for worship Date of organization: 01/01/1967 Diocese: Archdiocese of Baltimore Maryland Address/Location: 10431 Twin Rivers Road Columbia , MD United States 21044 Relvant Web Site: [Web Link] Date of building construction: Not listed Dominant Architectural Style: Not listed Associated Shrines, Art, etc.: Not listed Archdiocese: Not listed

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