LIVONIA — Parishioners at St. Edith Parish in Livonia are celebrating their 50th anniversary with a full year of golden jubilee activities and events, the most recent of which was a picnic Aug. 26 on the parish grounds.

“We decided to make it an anniversary year,” said Fr. James McNulty, St. Edith’s pastor since November 2010. “We wanted something big for all ages.”

On Nov. 3, following the 5 p.m. Mass, the community will have an anniversary dinner at the parish hall.

“We’ve invited the past pastors, associates, deacons, others who were connected with the parish,” Fr. McNulty said. “Fifty years is a long time.”

St. Edith Parish Location: 15089 Newburgh Rd., Livonia 48154 Phone: (734) 464-1222 Founded: 1962 Current pastor: Fr. James McNulty Founding pastor: Fr. William Yakes Ministries and area involvement: Funeral luncheons, Mothers of Preschoolers, bereavement, homebound/nursing homes/hospitals, A New Dawn for widows and widowers, Gospel of Life, Knights of Columbus, music, lectors, ushers, altar servers, sacristans, liturgical environment, religious education for children and adults, parish elementary school.

The pastor said a display of pictures and newspaper articles is in the church’s gathering space, and they’re selling 50th anniversary mugs and Christmas ornaments to mark the occasion. In addition, the parish is conducting oral history interviews with the founding members of the parish.

St. Edith Parish was founded in 1962 under the leadership of its first pastor, Fr. William Yakes. The first Mass was celebrated in the cafeteria of Ladywood High School on June 25. Six months later, on Christmas Eve, John Cardinal Dearden consecrated the first of three St. Edith worship spaces the congregation would utilize over five decades. The second church was completed in 1979 and the current building in 1989.

St. Edith School, with children enrolled in first through sixth grade, opened its doors in 1965. A seventh grade was added in 1981, and eighth grade in 1982, and in 1983 a kindergarten was added to the school.

“The school is still going strong,” Fr. McNulty said. “The current enrollment is about 230. The school has always been a small school. We have just one classroom per grade. That’s all the room that we have. It’s been very stable over the years.”



Fr. John Van Antwerp succeeded Fr. Yakes as pastor in 1967 and ushered the parish through the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, such as the first parish council and the administration, Christian service, education and worship commissions.

“The parish has always been open to fresh ideas, particularly in the area of faith formation and Christian service,” Fr. McNulty said. “Some of the Christian service activities were started way before people were doing them in other places, like reaching out to individual parishioners and providing meals, transportation and fixing things in their homes and all kinds of things that people needed. That was really new when they started doing it here.”

Fr. Van Antwerp was succeeded by Fr. Jim Scheick in 1980, Fr. Timothy Murray in 2000, Fr. Paul Ballien as administrator in 2004 and Fr. Mike Kazer as pastor in 2005. When Fr. Kazer died suddenly in 2010, Fr. Lawrence Kaiser was named administrator until Fr. McNulty took the reins in November 2010.

“We’ve gone through a long period of growth, and now Livonia is an established community, so we’re working on building up our parish community,” Fr. McNulty said. “We’re also reaching out to our community, being more of an evangelizing parish.”