Liturgies, devotions and $3.5M renovation project pave bright future for Greektown parish

DETROIT — Old St. Mary’s Parish, founded in 1834, has earned the title of “old.”

It’s a badge the downtown parish wears with pride, having stood tall in Detroit’s Greektown district since long before even the Greek immigrants who gave the neighborhood its name.

Over the decades — 18 of them, to be exact — the parish has witnessed the rise and fall, and rise again, of one of Detroit’s more vibrant neighborhoods.

The first church, constructed in 1841 on land sold to Bishop Peter Paul LeFevre by Antoine and Monica Beaubien, whose names now grace the streets nearby, gave way in 1885 to the current jaw-dropping basilica-like Pisan Romanesque structure that’s grown to become an icon of the city itself.

Situated directly next door to Greektown Casino and Hotel, which some would argue is the centerpiece of a district that attracts 10 million visitors a year, Old St. Mary’s staff would likely argue differently. On Trip Advisor, the popular tourism website, the parish is ranked as the No. 11 “must see” destination in Detroit, ahead of any of its neighbors.

One glimpse at the church — from the outside or the inside — and one immediately sees why.

During his homily at the first-ever feast of Mary, Mother of the Church at Old St. Mary’s on May 21, Auxiliary Bishop Donald Hanchon remarked that the first time he saw the massive dome as a college freshman, he immediately thought, “this looks like St. Peter’s Basilica; I’ve never seen a church so big.”

Still, despite the obvious prestige that comes with the church’s history, beauty and location, Old St. Mary’s hasn’t lost sight of its basic, evangelizing mission.

“Mass attendance since 2014 has gone up about 10 percent each year,” said Randy Bowers, operations manager for Old St. Mary’s. “Last year, counting the weekday Masses, there were about 38,000 people here. We think we’re doing a good job in attracting people to come to Mass.”

Old St. Mary’s strives to be open and welcoming seven days a week, Bowers said. From daily Masses and confessions to near daily tours and drop-in visitors, the cavernous church is almost always buzzing with activity.

“If you’re not open, you might as well be a museum,” Bowers said. “We try to be open as much as we can.” Even when the parish office is closed, “we’ve had people ring the rectory doorbell and we’ll take them into the church.”

In 2015, the parish started on an ambitious, five-year, $3.5 million restoration project that’s included a whole new roof, major masonry work to the church’s steeples and various interior and exterior improvements.

Though the church itself is in good shape for a 133-year-old building, the renovations were planned to keep the foundation strong — literally and figuratively — for another generation.

“The last time there was any major restoration was in the early 80s, and we maintain the property pretty well,” Bowers said. “We’re doing a top-to-bottom restoration, and we figure by the time we’re done, with proper maintenance the church should be set for the next 40 to 60 years.”

In addition to the roof and steeples, the parish has replaced sidewalks and parking lots and installed new heating and cooling systems, bell tower motors and controls, new digital sound and video systems and electrical components. Two of the church’s three grottos have been restored — with the third still to come — as well as restoration work on historic furniture, statues, vestments and organ pipes.

In the next two years, further improvements are planned to preserve historic stained-glass windows, install new lighting, reinforce the foundations, and improve landscaping and paint work.

Such a large-scale project wouldn’t be on the agenda for a parish that didn’t plan to be around for decades more to come.

“In general, our parishioners come from about a 60-mile radius,” Bowers said. “They come from the far east to right near Ann Arbor, to south of Downriver. We have some families that come in from Brighton every weekend. We have a huge mix, and many from Detroit.”

Many of those who come to Old St. Mary’s regard the community as their “second parish,” Bowers said, and the ethnic makeup is just as varied as the locales from which parishioners hail.

“If you’ve ever been to a Mass here, you’re going to see young, old, African-American, white, Indian, Asian, Filipino, Hispanic, big families, small families, empty nesters. It’s a grab bag, and it’s kind of a nice blend because we’re not heavy on one end or another,” Bowers said. “It’s a nice mix.”

During the week, Old St. Mary’s daily 12:15 p.m. Mass serves as a lunch-hour oasis for downtown professionals, many of whom work in the parish’s former school building, which is leased to Rock Ventures Enterprises.

“Sometimes doctors come in wearing their coats. You’ll see lawyers, judges and young professionals. If you come to a weekday Mass, you’ll see the same microcosm,” Bowers said.

The frescoes and marble arches of Old St. Mary’s aren’t the only historic aspect to the parish. The parish also boasts the oldest Knights of Columbus council in Michigan, Council No. 305, and the Spiritan religious community — commonly known as the Holy Ghost Fathers — is celebrating its 125th anniversary at the parish, the second-longest continual service for a religious community at any archdiocesan parish (SS. Peter and Paul Jesuit Parish, its neighbor, has the longest). Since 1893, the parish has seen 13 Spiritan pastors, including Fr. Wayne Epperly, C.S.Sp., who leads the community today.

“They’re really holy priests. The Eucharist, the sacraments are very important to them,” Bowers said.

Apart from liturgies and devotions at Old St. Mary’s ranging from a weekly Latin Novus Ordo Mass, monthly anointing of the sick (first Wednesdays), regular adoration (Fridays) and monthly Masses in the Tridentine form, Fr. Epperly and Fr. LeRoy Moreeuw, C.PP.S, a senior Precious Blood priest in residence, also encourage a spirit of service, Bowers said.

Because of the Spiritans’ heavy presence in Africa, Old St. Mary’s has a sister parish in Tanzania, which parishioners have helped to build schools, seminaries, churches and water projects for more than 50 years, in addition to numerous local volunteer opportunities.

“Our members do a lot of work for downtown food pantries, St. Augustine and St. Monica’s pregnancy center,” Bowers said. “We send people over to cook food at the Pope Francis Center once a month for 200 people. We work with a lot of the other churches within the vicariate, quietly doing our mission.

“Sometimes people look at a downtown church and it seems foreboding to them,” Bowers said. “But we’re not a club. We like people to feel they’re always welcome.”