Journey to the Catholic Churches of Detroit.: St. Athanasius-Roseville

St. Athanasius was born in the year 296 AD (although some sources put his birth sometime between 293 and 296 AD). He is considered the greatest champion of Catholic belief on the subject of the incarnation and is widely known as the “Father of Orthodoxy”. He died in 373 AD and his feast day in on May 2^nd.

St. Athanasius in Roseville is a very cozy and comfortable church with many modern features. The church consists of 4 rows of pews that face the altar with one row of pews to the left of the altar. The altar, itself, has a modern oak finish with a brick wall behind it. A crucifix hangs from the rafters over the altar.

Large picture windows surround both sides of the church. The top part of the windows is made of stained glass and the bottom part is regular glass that allows you to view the church surroundings. The usual variety of art work and statutes help complete the look of St. Athanasius.

St. Athanasius will be merging with 2 other local parishes sometime in 2014 so we were glad we had the opportunity to visit and worship with the parishioners at St. Athanasius. They have a joyous and bustling faith community; giving, generously, to those less fortunate and helping to coordinate different activities with the other parishes in their cluster.

The pastor at St. Athanasius is Reverend Eugene Katcher. Retired priest Fr. Bill Siefert presided at the mass we attended. In his homily, Fr. Siefert talked about how our values shape who we are in our lives and in our relationship with God.

We visited St. Athanasius on a brisk cool December afternoon. However we found the cool temperatures didn’t damper the spirit or faith of the congregation at St. Athanasius. Nor did the news of the upcoming merger with other Catholic churches in the area; instead we were pleasantly surprised by the positive and uplifting attitude of everyone we met. It made our visit to St. Athanasius a memorable and exciting time.

Up Next: Our Lady of the Lake-Waterford