Home / News & Publications / Michigan Catholic News / 2008 / St. Conrad’s prepares for closing, merging
St. Conrad’s prepares for closing, merging
by Joe Kohn of The Michigan Catholic
May 23, 2008
Detroit — St. Conrad Parish in Melvindale will be closing its doors at the end of June, and its parish family will again become part of the nearby St. Mary Magdalen Parish.
Closing and merging
• a remembrance/grieving service will take place 6:30 p.m., Sunday, June 1, at St. Conrad Church, 3320 Melwood Street in Melvindale
• the final Mass at St. Conrad, celebrated by Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Francis Reiss, will be 10 a.m., June 90.
• the Mass of merging will take place at St. Mary Magdalen Church, 19624 Wood Street in Melvindale. |
St. Conrad was established as a parish in 1966, after having been a mission of St. Mary Magdalen. Plans were made last year in accordance with the Archdiocese of Detroit’s Together in Faith restructuring process to bring the St. Conrad Parish community back into the fold at St. Mary Magdalen. The two parishes have been clustered for three years.
“It was a sorrowful event, but right now everything is coming together,” says Fr. Jeffrey Anifer, who is pastor of both Melvindale-based parishes. “Since both churches are in Melvindale, many of the parishioners knew each other from way back.”
St. Conrad Parish has 210 families; St. Mary Magdalen Parish has about 700.
Despite the homecoming of sorts, the closing of St. Conrad Parish will be a sad day for many of its parishioners. The final Mass at the parish is scheduled for June 29. Prior to the final Mass, a grieving service will be held the evening of June 1.
At its Sunday Mass on July 6, the parish community of St. Mary Magdalen will welcome St. Conrad parishioners into the parish.
Fr. Anifer says he’ll be encouraging the parish communities to focus on their unity in Christ and with one another — an association that transcends the physical structures in which they worship.
“We’re just Church,” he says. “The building doesn’t make Church, the people do. And coming together and worshiping God as a group of prayerful people, we’ll be fine.”
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