Lancaster Adoration Chapel recalls manger in Bethlehem

A stained-glass window that bears the inscription “Come Let Us Adore Him” provides a fitting welcome to a recently completed Adoration Chapel at Lancaster St. Mark Church.

Bishop Earl Fernandes blessed the chapel before celebrating an outdoor Saturday Vigil Mass and joining parishioners for their annual picnic on Sept. 10.

The Chapel, which is housed in the former parish office inside the front entrance to the church and has seating for eight to ten adorers, and was designed to resemble the humble birth of our Lord in a manger in Bethlehem.

The Chapel is open on Mondays and Tuesdays after the 8 a.m. daily Mass until 10 p.m. But it is hoped that more days will be added.

The idea to construct an Adoration Chapel was conceived in early 2021 after former Columbus Bishop Robert Brennan launched the Real Presence Real Future initiative in the diocese and as the church was starting to come out of the COVID crisis.

“We here at St. Mark were thinking that we needed to emphasize the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and to chart a path forward for dealing with a lot of the things that were going on – not only at St. Mark but also in the Diocese,” Deacon Hurdley said. “And we started praying about that and felt that we really needed to draw near to the Lord in prayer to seek His guidance.”

After brainstorming about what to do, the idea of a chapel dedicated to adoring Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament germinated.

“Parishioners had approached us in the past about taking what was then the church office and transforming that into an Adoration Chapel,” Deacon Hurdley said. “And we started praying about that and thought this was probably an ideal location.”

Father Peter Gideon, the parish pastor, presented the idea to the parish council and then made the call to move ahead with the chapel.

To make that happen, a musical chairs of sorts commenced to find new homes for the parish office and various ministries affected by the relocation of the parish office. All of this activity was completed by the fall of 2021. 

A committee was then formed  to seek input from the congregation on the design of the chapel and to raise money to build it.

“We had plans of potentially raising a significant amount of money, and we were ready to go forward with a campaign to do that,” Deacon Hurdley said. 

“But because of the things that were going on with the Real Presence initiative and the planning process that was starting to kick into gear, we were limited on the size of the project to $10,000, which, at that point, was a constraint in terms of what we were thinking about doing. 

“But it really opened up a lot of things that enabled us to move forward because we no longer had to think about a huge fundraising campaign.”

The money came in quickly, and then the next challenge was how to use the limited funds to build a chapel worthy of the Lord.

Considering St. Mark is a church of modest design located on a pastoral 42-acre campus with large, wooded greenspace, the parish settled on incorporating simplicity and a natural setting into the construction.

“We thought about the life of Jesus, and we centered upon the Incarnation and his humble birth in a stable in Bethlehem” Deacon Hurdley said. 

 “The idea of the Lord being born in a simple, humble manger captivated us.”

 With no budget leeway to hire an architect, “we just, on the back of a sheet of paper, started sketching out an idea of what it could look like,” Deacon Hurdley explained. “And then we contacted one of our parishioners, Jim Tawney, who’s gifted with building skills and said, ‘This is what we would like to do. Can you help us out with this?’ 

 “And he said, ‘Yeah, I think I can do that.’ And he’s very creative. And he’s hardworking, and he works fast.”

The work began in early 2022 and was finished in fewer than six months, well ahead of the projected completion date of late 2022. In addition to Tawney, parishioners Paul Sullivan and Herb Reeder donated many hours of service on the project.

 “People were giving of their talents to make this happen and just using the skills and the abilities that God gave them,” Deacon Hurdley said.

Five stained-glass windows that depict scenes from the Incarnation were commissioned and installed, including the one in the entrance that shows Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus in the manger and the inscription “Come Let Us Adore Him.”

 Parishioners contributed to the furnishings, and Father Gideon, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, purchased a wooden shutter that features a scene from the birth of Jesus painted on the backside that was hung in the Chapel.

 Father Gideon credited former Lancaster St. Bernadette Church pastor Msgr. Robert Noon, who died in 2020 at age 97, as an inspiration to build the Chapel. Msgr. Noon had started Eucharistic Adoration at St. Bernadette before he retired and came to live in the rectory at St. Mark before Father Gideon arrived as pastor in 2004.

“When some folks raised the question of starting Adoration at St. Mark, Msgr. Noon was there to answer practical questions and to give much encouragement,” Father Gideon said. “As we dedicate this new Adoration Chapel, the folks of St. Mark and Lancaster and Fairfield County owe Msgr. Noon an acknowledgement and a debt of gratitude.” 

At Bishop Fernandes’ blessing of the rustic-looking chapel last week where the Lord will be adored, parishioners and clergy members looked on in thanksgiving.

 “It just all came together,” Deacon Hurdley said. “And we feel blessed. We had some initial hurdles that we encountered, but we cleared those quickly. Our original plan to build something opulent would have been, in retrospect, out of place for the nature of our church.

 “We were led to an aspect of our Lord’s life where He is born into the world not in a palace but in a manger. And He emphasizes to us not only how very close He is to us, but also how important humility is in the Christian walk. And that’s really what we tried to capture in the Chapel.”