MADISON — Our Lady, cradling the Christ Child, is captured beautifully in stained glass. Looking toward the Blue Ridge Mountains, she has flowers growing at her sandaled feet. Both she and her Son have halos of light around their heads. This window, by artist Ronald Dixon, is installed in the balcony area of Our Lady of the Blue Ridge Church in Madison.

Missionhurst Father John Morel, former pastor, served at the parish from 1989 until his retirement in June 2002. Located in the Piedmont region, it has 125 families.

Because of the church’s arched windows, high ceiling and steeple, a local Protestant minister good-naturedly referred to it as "the cathedral of Madison." It was constructed on a hill’s crest along Route 29, formerly known as the Seminole Trail. Beside and behind the rectory, Stations of the Cross, built by a parishioner, wind through a large meadow.

The composition of the parish is "a nice mixture of ages," said Father Morel. There are "many, many young children and babies," he said. "On the other end of the rainbow, there are many retirees," often from the government or military service careers. Very few members are originally from the Madison area, he said. "We’re all immigrants, one way or the other," he said. Some parishioners are from Pennsylvania, New England and some from other parts of Virginia, such as the northern suburbs.

During his tenure, Father Morel, who is from Belgium, has seen the parish grow. Mass attendance has tripled. When he arrived, there were three Masses, one on Saturday evenings and two on Sundays, with sometimes only 15 people at each. The current church has capacity for 190 people, 150 on the main level and 40 in the choir loft. Now with two Sunday Masses only, they are generally well-attended, he said.

One recent Sunday, Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde visited the parish for the first time, celebrated Mass and greeted attendees individually at a reception afterward.

In 1974, the parish was established at a mission of St. John Parish in Orange, and re-designated an independent parish in 1977. Masses were celebrated in the Madison Volunteer Fire Department hall. In 1979, a two-story building containing a rectory upstairs and a chapel downstairs was constructed. The current church was dedicated in June 1992.

The local ministerial association to which Father Morel belongs is "very, very active," he said. At their regular monthly meetings there are 12-15 attendees, with a representation of many denominations. "There is a good understanding among the ministers and between the Catholic church and the other churches." In area where Catholics are two percent of the population, the other ministers "have been most gracious in finding me and taking me in as a brother," he said.

The association sponsors a baccalaureate ceremony for the local high school and a different minister each offers the invocation, keynote address, benediction and reading. Annually, in addition to a Thanksgiving Mass, the ministers host an ecumenical service. "The relationship is very gratifying, very beautiful," he said.

Because each local congregation is relatively small, many of the churches in Madison have formed a cooperative effort to pool their resources. Our Lady of the Blue Ridge is involved in the inter-denominational organizations MESA (Madison Emergency Services Association) and Habitat for Humanity. MESA provides clothing and food to the needy as well as offering assistance with employment, housing and transportation. In the Habitat ministry, the parish is one of the sponsoring churches. They pay their annual contribution in four installments, as well as having parishioners who help on the construction site. A few Sundays ago, the Habitat members broke ground for the latest home, the sixth in the area.

Ruth Kulick has been a parishioner since the late 1970s, involved in social justice issues of working with the rural poor. Her husband, John, and their four children support her in these efforts, she said.

Some of the area’s poverty issues include lack of clean or running water or indoor plumbing. Also computers or job skills training are not available, such as to high school students. The one-time textile plants, which were major employers, have closed. Since 1983, Kulick has served in a number of positions in MESA. The organization helped start a child care center and is building a shelter and resource center.

For the needy, "decent rural housing is almost non-existent," she said. There is almost no public housing and no public transportation" for traveling to and from a job. "Many parish members helped get the shelter built," she said. Community members who have been active include Connie Johnson, Ruth Johnson, Virginia Serroka and Chuck and Dianne Gagliano.

MESA has received assistance from diocesan Catholic Charities, Operation Rice Bowl and the United Way, she said.

"They have been a life line of utmost importance, continually supportive," she said.

She said that in her area, it is very difficult to coordinate help for rural poverty.

"The churches are very generous, but small," she said. "It is important for these parishes to network with Northern Virginia parishes."

For more than five years, since a time of ravaging floods in the Madison area, St. Agnes Parish in Arlington has been very helpful, she said. Twice a year, at Easter and Thanksgiving, through Scouts collections, the Northern Virginia parish has sent truckloads of "appropriate, high caliber food" to their southern brethren. "They have been abundant and faithful in their generosity, and respond to every request.." These parish "twinnings" are crucial because "the need will increase," she said.

For more than 16 years, Kulick has taught in the parish CCD program at the middle- or high-school level. She lives about 10 miles from the church, though she said that some people drive 30 miles to get there. "Travel and distances are unique to a rural parish," she said.

The Our Lady of the Blue Ridge Outreach Program helps the needy and elderly. Originally began as the parish St. Vincent de Paul Conference by Bill Reiner in the mid-1990s, the program has several active members. Our Lady of the Blue Ridge has twinned with Our Lady of the Grace Parish in Haiti, served by Missionhurst Guido Reynaerts, pastor, and offers financial support. A few parishioners from each parish have traveled to visit one another’s locations and members correspond back and forth.

Our Lady of the Blue Ridge parish has a Legion of Mary and a pro-life group. The parish is connected with Epiphany School in Culpeper, which is supported by its four surrounding parishes. Father Morel said a few of the Madison parishioners send their children to school there.

The parish also has a home school group of several families, the children of which also attend the CCD program. "The children from both programs benefit each other," he said. "There is a good relationship."

On Thursdays, the home school group holds a gathering at the church. Some of the members attend the days 8 a.m. Mass and then have their breakfast outdoors, weather permitting, beforehand.

The parish youth group has about 30 teens, which connects with ecumenical youth groups in the area. One of the group’s regular activities is local pilgrimages. They have visited Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville; Mt. St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg, Md.; and a few weeks ago went to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Most teenagers stay with the altar boy program through high school, said Father Morel.

A two-level religious education building, which will be constructed parallel to the rectory in part of the current field, is planned. Father Morel had told the parishioners that when the church was paid off, which has occurred, they would begin the new CCD Center, and a portion of the money has already been collected. There 80 children in the parish religious education program, from kindergarten through high school, now meet in the rectory’s basement, which was the original church. Before it was constructed, CCD classes gathered in a trailer next to the building.

An additional building project is to construct a portico over the church’s front doors to protect the entrance, as currently the doors take a severe beating from the weather.

Most of the priests who have served at the parish have been of the Missionhurst order. Initially was Father John Jansen, pastor at St. John Parish in Orange, when Our Lady of the Blue Ridge was a mission. He was followed by Father Eugene Neyer, a diocesan priest; and then three Missionhurst priests, Fathers Paul De Wolf, Albert Verbeke and Robert Timperman.

Father Morel, originally from Belgium, has served most of his priesthood in the United States. He initially had 34 years of experience at inner-city parishes in Philadelphia and Detroit. Then for nine years, he served in several capacities for Missionhurst in Northern Virginia locations.

On June 11, Father Morel had hip replacement surgery. "I’m going to become a hippie," he said cheerfully beforehand.

He will be retiring on June 26 at 88 (see ACH 6/13/02). Father Michael Orlowsky, parochial vicar at Holy Family Parish in Dale City, will become administrator of Our Lady of the Blue Ridge Parish.

Father Morel said the rural nature of Madison is "as close to heaven as you can be. I was born in the city and lived in the city but always loved the country, too, for excursions and walking," he said. The property is five-and-a-half acres. He enjoys solitude and working in "the wilderness" behind the rectory, which is a meadow of long grass and some trees. A path is mowed through the area for walking. The two geese on the property when he arrived, which he named Golden and Nugget, have become his pets.

At a Glance

Our Lady of the Blue Ridge

Church: Intersection of Routes 29 and 629

Rectory and mailing address: HCR 4, Box 28

Madison, VA 22727

540/948-4144

Administrator: Rev. Michael Orlowsky (effective June 27, 2002)

Administrator: Father Michael Orlowsky (after June 26)

Mass Schedule:

Sun. 8, 10:30 a.m.

Weekdays: 8 a.m.

DRE: Jim Beeman

YM: Connie Conlon, Susan Torborg and Debbie Villemaire

Parish Founded: 1977

Deanery: IV

Parish Boundaries: All of Madison County