Published: May 09, 2008 10:49 pm            

NORTH TONAWANDA: St. Albert’s voting on name change

“What’s in a name?” A lot, apparently.

A vote tomorrow at St. Albert the Great, Niagara Falls Boulevard and Melody Lane, North Tonawanda, will begin to decide a sore subject for certain members of the newly combined congregation: What to call the parish.

Ballots will be handed out to all who show up at Sunday’s four masses. Those in attendance will be asked to choose three saints’ names for final consideration by Bishop Edward Kmiec, of the Buffalo Diocese. Votes will be tallied on Monday.

According to members appointed to transition the church, regardless of how members vote, the new name will not be “St. Albert the Great.”

Some don’t believe a change should occur at all. According to the diocese, it is optional. In fact, a letter from Kmiec states that roughly half of the total number of merged parishes in the area have taken a new name.

Some churchgoers are eager to move beyond the issue.

The building, according to cannon law, must remain “St. Albert the Great,” with any changes applied to the church’s collective membership, for all intents and purposes, how outsiders will come to know the place.

Catholic officials with the Buffalo Diocese, who are mandating the closures, call the process of relocating worshipers a “journey in faith and grace.”

Religious officials cite decreasing participation and a drop in the number of confirmed Catholics as the reason for the shuffle.

But some members of the combined congregation of the former Ascension church and St. Albert the Great have taken exception to the devices by which change is occurring — mainly, the speed at which St. Albert’s, now the spiritual home for about 2,500 local families from both original congregations, is being redistributed.

“I think for a lot of people it’s not so much the change, but the fact that it’s occurring so quickly, and I think they have a point. I think they’re right,” said John Colvin, a 30-year member of St. Albert’s.

Colvin sits on a 19-member committee in charge of changing the church’s name for the first time in its 60-year history. After deciding that a name change was an appropriate course of action, the body was responsible for coming up with six names to be whittled down to the three that will be sent along to the bishop.

That, in itself, has many people flummoxed.

Others focus only on the good. They feel as though the actual structure and the name on the outside is more of a loan anyway — a temporal starting point for a religious experience ultimately defined by a series of personalities with more in common than not — their faith.

“For a lot of people it has been overwhelming,” Colvin said. “For me, personally, it has been great.”

Citing fuller pews, packed programs and new faces, he said, “This is the best time it’s been at this church, for me, in 30 years.”

Regardless, some feel left in the lurch.

“We do not mind change, change is good, but it does not have to happen like a whirlwind,” said Carmela Rybczynski, who has been a member of St. Albert’s for nearly 40 years.

There’s the question of who is worthy to decide the spiritual future for the 2,500 families — the identity, ethnic character, positions held within the church and, yes, the name.

There is a church organist and committees with room for only a limited number of individuals set to address religious education and administration. There are ushers and a bereavement committee.

There’s the name change committee — 19 members who, by all accounts, simply signed up.

It’s a story as old as politics, or religion, or both. Ad hoc committees with a say on the future for many worshipers are populated by a few volunteers in the right place at the right time.

Some are inevitably left out from steering what decisions should be made.

Rybczynski said she feels terrible for any member of a church forced to close and accepts her new pewmates, however, there are other issues at work.

“We feel if they take our name away from us, everything that we are and stand for is erased,” Rybczynski said. “People need to make their own decision, not have a team of people who sat on a transition team make it for them.”

Colvin said it’s not really one church being renamed, but a new church entirely. He said before either could combine, both first had to close. Many people just didn’t notice, he said.

Kmiec issued this statement as a way of summing up frustration here and across the nation, where similar closures are taking place:

“Our life is different today. We are building new parishes in a different way, not with masonry, brick and stone, but rather we’re building living stones coming into new faith communities that we hope people will find a new vibrancy where they will have a better opportunity to express their faith.”

Monsignor Kruzer, who founded St. Albert’s died several years ago.

Rybczynski said one issue vexing her and others is a matter of living legacy. She said that most of the churches that have decided to rename their parishes, parishes similar to that of the former Ascension Church — which was founded over 100 years ago, may be in a better position to redefine elements of their original character.

“Those parishes have been in existence for a long time and the founders who actually started it and paid for it are often dead and gone,” she said. “It’s different because we have (original) members who are alive today.”

Contact reporter Neale Gulleyat 693-1000, ext. 114.

        

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