Norcross congregation buys Buffalo church

If faith can move mountains, Mary Our Queen Catholic Church parishioners also hope it can move a church.

The Georgia parish plans to buy St. Gerard's Roman Catholic Church in Buffalo, N.Y., and relocate it -- bell tower, pews and all -- to Norcross.  The idea is for the near century-old church to be taken apart, moved 900 miles and reassembled.

All it will take is prayer and between $12 million and $16 million.

"New is not always better, you know," said Father David Dye, who has led the 750-family parish since 1996. "You can't duplicate the quality.  If we tried, it would probably cost somewhere around $40 million."

On a Web site that explains the move [www.movedbygrace.com], the project is referred to as "preservation by relocation." Mary Our Queen will get a church with stained-glass windows, carved statues, 15 paintings, doors, wrought-iron work, an Indiana limestone exterior and a bell tower with five American-cast bells.

In Buffalo,  people are pleased that St. Gerard's, a fixture  in their city's  history, will survive and continue to be used by the Catholic community.

"I think it's wonderful," said Sharon Wilbur, a Mary Our Queen parishioner whose family coincidentally attended St. Gerard's for generations. Her mother and aunts were married in the Buffalo church. She was baptized at St. Gerard's and went to church services until she was nine. Chances are good she will get to worship there again in Atlanta.

The Buffalo neighborhood around St. Gerard's had deteriorated in recent years, and Wilbur worried that the churchwould become the target of vandals or worse. With the impending church move, those concerns are gone.

The physical transfer of the church has widespread approval, receiving the blessings of both the Archdiocese of Atlanta  and the  Diocese of Buffalo.

"Relocating this magnificent church to Norcross provides a unique opportunity not only to preserve St. Gerard's Church, but for its continued use as it was originally intended -- as a Catholic church," said Kevin Keenan, Buffalo Diocese spokesman.

Once St. Gerard's is moved, the land will be cleared and turned into green space with a commemorative marker noting the church's prior existence. A final price still has not been reached, but Keenan said the church will be sold for market value. People already are making travel plans to follow the church south.

"Many former St. Gerard's parishioners have said they look forward to traveling to Norcross to worship in the church once it is rebuilt," Keenan said.

There's been almost no opposition to the move. Henry McCartney, Preservation Buffalo Niagara director, said his group considers this a rare situation that makes sense for everyone involved. "I don't feel like we should oppose it and have to deal with another vacant, deteriorating church," he said.

Yet this unusual move is not one people in this chilly New York city expect to duplicate. "We don't want  people to come to Buffalo and take our historic buildings," McCartney said. "This is a unique situation. I don't think it'll happen again."

An entire church move was first considered two years ago.   Having outgrown its space, the Mary Our Queen membership wanted to build another church on nearby land and was looking to buy pews, choir stands and other fixtures from closed churches. In that process, the decision was made to buy an entire church rather than pieces.

Churches for sale in Boston and Buffalo were investigated. When the Boston project didn't materialize, parish leaders in Atlanta turned their attention to St. Gerard's.

The Buffalo Diocese was faced with dwindling Catholic membership. People were leaving the area to look for jobs elsewhere. There were declining birth rates in Catholic households. The St. Gerard's membership went from 1,600 families in the 1960s to 100 when it held its final mass on Jan. 5, 2008.

Accompanied by architect Bill Harrison, Dye looked over St. Gerard's for the first time  in 2008 and was very impressed. "I was blown away, it was so beautiful," Dye said. "The second time, it was even more beautiful than I remembered."

Harrison of Buckhead-based Harrison Design Associates ironically had given Dye a design that was a near replica of St. Gerard's.

"The church was about 95 percent of what he had drawn," Dye said. "He's not even Catholic and I think he was ready to convert."

Harrison, a Baptist,  was amused by the similarities of the Buffalo church and his mock-up. "I looked at it and said, ‘Wow, this is really good,'" he recalled. "Let's move it stone by stone."

Each piece of St. Gerard's to be moved will be numbered and documented. Harrison, who specializes in high-end commercial and residential projects and historic preservation, will move 80 percent of the Buffalo church. Upgrades will be made for access points for people with disabilities. Repairs and fresh paint also are needed.