Saturday, July 01, 2000

The final touches

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Renovated church opens

By Lew Moores
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        DELHI TOWNSHIP — Friday morning, while workers were completing the final touches on the chapel, Sister Thomas More Rybarsyk took a cloth moistened with oil soap and ran it across the pews that were lightly coated with the dust that even last-minute renovation work kicks up.

THE RENOVATED IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHAPEL AT THE SISTERS OF CHARITY MOTHERHOUSE IN DELHI TOWNSHIP IS BEING REDEDICATED TODAY. (Brandi Stafford photo) | ZOOM |

        She was joined by more than a half-dozen Sisters of Charity who made the wood shine in preparation for today, a day they have waited for since October.

        Today, beginning at 2:30 p.m., the doors to the renovated Immaculate Conception Chapel at the Sisters of Charity Motherhouse will be reopened and its altar rededicated. Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk will celebrate the rededication liturgy. The ceremony is by invitation only.

        Sister Thomas More gazed up at the domed ceiling four stories above her, at the improved lighting, the new paint and the stained glass windows that are now back-lit. It is lighter, more airy.

        “I think it's magnificent, I really do,” she said.

        She praised the foresight of the sisters who came before her 100 years ago and had the chapel built. “I think this is a real monument to them,” she said.

        The renovation work began in October. New air conditioning and heating was installed, lighting was added, murals were cleaned and painting was done throughout.

        The altar was moved toward the center of the chapel, to sit on a peninsula of marble. Chairs and pews now surround the altar on three sides, making for less-distant worship.

        “We knew that we wanted to enhance the worship space so that the community (of sisters) could be closer,” said Sister Barbara Hagedorn, executive councilor and chairwoman of the chapel committee. “The Eucharist is very important to the Sisters of Charity, and the chapel is the place where we have our vow ceremonies, where everybody has entered the community, where we have our funerals to say farewell.”

        Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati is a religious community of more than 600 sisters who work in various ministries throughout this country and in four foreign countries.

        The sisters have been using the Motherhouse auditorium for services. Now, said Sister Barbara, the auditorium can revert to a place for meetings and receptions.

        “The chapel is used every day,” said Sister Barbara. “The sisters use it for private prayer and adoration during the day. So it's used pretty much all day, every day.”

       

       

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