Blessed event: Bishop dedicates new classroom, activity buildings at Grovetown church

Joe Hotchkiss, Augusta Chronicle
·2 min read
Accompanied by church Deacon Kerry Diver (right), Bishop Stephen D. Parkes of the Diocese of Savannah uses an aspergillum to sprinkle holy water down a hallway of one of the newly-constructed buildings at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church in Grovetown.
Accompanied by church Deacon Kerry Diver (right), Bishop Stephen D. Parkes of the Diocese of Savannah uses an aspergillum to sprinkle holy water down a hallway of one of the newly-constructed buildings at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church in Grovetown.

Columbia County could be closer to getting its first Catholic school.

The bishop of the Diocese of Savannah visited Grovetown’s St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church on Sunday to bless and dedicate the parish’s new Activity Center and a wing that doubles the size of the church’s Education Center.

“These buildings are made of stones, and of brick, of plaster and mortar, but what goes on in them is really what is most important,” Bishop Stephen D. Parkes said at a ceremony after the church’s 9 a.m. Mass.

The 37,000-square-foot Activity Center includes a basketball court; meeting rooms for middle and high school students; a multipurpose room for group exercise; and an indoor walking track.

The Education Center added 12 classrooms for a total of 24, which were built to Georgia Department of Education design and construction standards in anticipation of possibly starting a Catholic elementary school.

The Rev. Thomas Peyton, a former pastor at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church who helped lay the groundwork for the parish's building program, uses an aspergillum to bless with holy water one of the newly-built classrooms at the church in Grovetown.
The Rev. Thomas Peyton, a former pastor at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church who helped lay the groundwork for the parish's building program, uses an aspergillum to bless with holy water one of the newly-built classrooms at the church in Grovetown.

“No, we don’t know what these walls are going to hold – I think we all have a pretty good idea,” Parkes said. “We pray that whatever happens here will be very successful, that it will be supported and that the Holy Spirit will inspire us always to do the right thing when it comes to education, when it comes to the gift of Catholic education, that it is His will, and we put it in His hands.”

More: Columbia County private school seeks room to grow near Grovetown

The completed Activity Center and new education wing mark the completion of the church’s three-phase building plan for the site. The parish broke ground in March 2004 for its Life Center and Education Building, which were completed in 2005. The second phase, a new sanctuary, began construction n August 2013 and was completed in late 2014.

Bishop Stephen D. Parkes of the Diocese of Savannah speaks to parishioners in the new education wing at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church in Grovetown on Sunday.
Bishop Stephen D. Parkes of the Diocese of Savannah speaks to parishioners in the new education wing at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church in Grovetown on Sunday.

The bishop also dedicated the church's columbarium, a sacred space in which cremated remains can be interred.

Columbia County, particularly the part around Grovetown, “is expanding so rapidly, we see a need to eventually offer another Catholic school option," Jerry Baine, a St. Teresa's parishioner and its building project manager, told The Augusta Chronicle in August 2020.

The parish has grown from 1,400 families in 2005 to more than 2,000 now.

The parish moved to its present campus at 4921 Columbia Road in 2005, three years after the diocese purchased the 44.47-acre property. A driving range and a nine-hole golf course formerly operated on the site.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Bishop dedicates new buildings at St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church