Press

NORTH PROVIDENCE -

The St. Lawrence Rectory and St. Lawrence Parish Center signs remain, as do the For Sale signs in front of both, but across Woonasquatucket Avenue, the century-old St. Lawrence church building has a new sign, and a new name:

Grace Community Baptist Church, a Cumberland-based group, purchased the building in February for $275,000, says its pastor, the Rev. Rob Ventura.

According to Ventura, the 25-year-old congregation closed on the property on Feb. 22, and began worship at the 621 Woonasquatucket Ave. building the following Sunday.

"It's wonderful, we're so thankful," said Ventura, who has been pastor of the congregation for the past four years, coming from New Jersey after the founding pastor died. The group had been conducting services in rented space in Cumberland up until February, he said.

The purchase of the North Providence church, "was an absolutely great deal, and you can quote me on that," he said.

Paid for with private donations from members of the congregation and a donation from a New Jersey sister church, Grace Community Baptist Church will be dedicated on Sunday, June 12, at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. services, he said, with a luncheon in between.

According to the Rev. Jack Buckley, also a pastor who works part-time at the church in addition to being an engineer, the congregation had been looking for a home for some 15 years, renting space in Cumberland's Lafayette Lodge on Nate Whipple Highway, setting chairs up and breaking them down each week.

"We had looked at hundreds of places, old mill buildings, store fronts, garages," he said, and when the group learned of last fall's merger of the St. Lawrence parish with nearby Mary, Mother of Mankind parish on Fourth Street, and the potential sale of the century-old building, "we got in here right away," he said, standing on the now simple and plain altar area which holds fresh paint and a donated piano.

In fact, while they were touring the building with real estate agents, other interested parties were doing the same thing, he said.

According to the Rev. W. Douglas Grant, pastor of Mary, Mother of Mankind parish, who is the financial administrator of the St. Lawrence Church corporation, the sale of the church will "help reduce the debt," which was about $400,000 when St. Lawrence closed on Oct. 31, 2010. The sale of the rectory and the former school will also be applied to that debt he said, when a sale comes through, and if any money remains it will follow the 200 or so St. Lawrence parishioners to their new parish.

The two Baptist pastors conferred with Grant while moving into the building and making upgrades. And in true Rhode Island fashion, during the course of the conversation, Grant discovered that he grew up in the same area as Buckley, and Grant's sister was actually Buckley's classmate.

Grant said there was a lot of interest in the building from other churches. He has helped the new group with its clean-up efforts, provided the new owners with structural information about the building, and says he plans to attend Sunday's dedication.

"Oh yes," he said, adding that several former St. Lawrence parishioners may attend as well.

"We are absolutely delighted that a Christian community was able to purchase it," Grant said adding that he and the parish community are happy that the century-old building won't be demolished or unfavorably altered.

Grace Community Baptist Church members arranged for the building's interior to be painted, and some of the stained glass windows have been taken out or partially replaced.

The large stained glass window of St. Lawrence which was over the alter has been removed, and Grant said he is looking to find a home for it.

"Most of the church items went to other churches in the state," Grant said, listing the vestments, and vessels. The Stations of the Cross were removed as were organ-like pipes from the choir loft which blocked a round stained glass window. A bathroom has been added to the building, and other system upgrades made to heat, electricity and air conditioning.

St. Lawrence Church was founded in 1907 by 47 families who lived in the area and walked the two miles to St. Thomas Parish. The first Mass was celebrated on July 1, 1907, in a room in the Allendale Mill, a short distance from the present church building, and construction started shortly thereafter. Parishioners worshipped in the church basement for seven years while gathering financial resources to finish the building. It is said that early parishioners actually dug out the church basement with their own picks and shovels.

"It's beautiful and we are going to try to keep the character of the building," said Ventura.

Long-time St. Lawrence parish member Stanley Szelka, 90, said his wife Marguerite had attended that church since she was 2 years old, and they were married there. While he has been happy going to church at Mary, Mother of Mankind, and everyone there has been friendly, he said "it hurts a little bit," not going to the old building, but "it would have hurt a lot more" to see the building torn down. "I'm glad someone else is making use of it," he said.

At one time, the parish had 2,600 members, a school, rectory, convent and swimming pool. Last fall, a news release from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence announced the closing and merger saying the parish was "bankrupt" and had been for at least five years. The final Mass on Oct. 31 at 10:30 a.m. attracted an overflow crowd before the building was closed up.

Four months later, Grace Community Baptist Church held its first service there and Ventura said they are now looking ahead to a growing population.

"We hope to engage the neighborhood with the gospel," notes Buckley. "We have people going through some very difficult times economically. Our desire is to come here and to be good neighbors to them, to preach the bible, to assist them any way we can. We're not a rich congregation," he said, but plans are being made to install "various outreaches," such as a food pantry.

They are hoping to host a neighborhood cookout," said Ventura. "We want to get to know people." Grace Community Church membership is in the 30s, he said, but weekly attendance he said averages about 75 or 80 people.

"If people want to hear the Bible, they are more than welcome. We're not preaching against anybody. We preach the Bible," said Ventura. "If people want to hear the bible, we say come."

Buckley said the congregation was established in Mansfield, Mass., some 25 years ago by the Rev. Sherwood Becker, who was a First Baptist Church pastor in Foxboro, Mass., previous to that. The group sold their building there and relocated to Cumberland more than a decade ago with the intention of finding a new home. Ventura, an ordained minister and former AT&T employee, describes the group as being a Reformed Baptist community.

"The congregation is rejoicing. This is a gift from God to all of us."

For information about the Grace Community Baptist Church, call 401-826-3121 or check www.gcbcri.org .