Cathedral Building Update

The cathedral has recently completed a campaign to raise the money needed for the church facilities, equipment barn, and the construction of the barn is just complete this week. Floors were poured, and the last money came in within the same week. Praise the Lord, and thank you to all who supported this campaign. The “10 7s” campaign as the barn funding was called was a huge success with generous donors taking on portions of the barn funding and helping the church to establish a needed foothold in the process. The Church building basement is complete with walls and wooden flooring is being put in for the first floor this week. Next it will be stud walls for the first floor and the roof before long. Please continue to support the building project with prayer and tell others you know what we’re doing and how important it will be to have a Mid Atlantic Cathedral hub for convergence worship and healing. Updates posted at FHcathedral.com. If you or someone you know feel called to support the project, please contact the diocesan office: 410-838-6444.

Kingdom Life Youth and Young Adult Retreat

Kingdom Life Youth and Young Adult Retreat

This past October, 60 young persons and leaders gathered at a Christian camp in Forest Hill, MD for two days of praise, prayer, fun, and teaching. With the question of Covid still looming and rainy weather threatening, the young people came from New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, some with 8-hour drives. They gathered together and called on the Lord as one to move in their lives and God did not disappoint.

The testimonies that came back from this retreat were witness to the move of God on the lives of willing people. Prior to the retreat, many of the leaders and youth reported strain, stress, personal doubts, and major inconvenience: all common signs of our enemy’s attempts to subvert a major act of God.

At the retreat, we saw young people prophesy, speak in tongues, experience life changing healing, deliverance, and direction. There were testimonies of physical healing, emotional healing including depression being lifted and anxiety calmed, and young hearts rededicated to the purpose of God.

Many of the leaders were encouraged by the response of the young people to the teaching and the retreat itself. “Father Jeffery Welch’s lesson entitled ‘Obstacles To Grace’ was mind-blowing” said one high school male. Another said he would come back if this were a monthly event. Still others expressed their desire for the retreat to be longer and occur more often. All were blessed in some way and eager for another similar experience.

Bishop Rob is intent on hosting another event of this kind in the coming year and has said that even with the tremendous amount of preparation required for a retreat such as this, God’s move always makes it more than worthwhile.

This is My Body…

This is My Body…

Christ the Redeemer Mission, located in Pigtown, Baltimore, will soon celebrate the installation of a tabernacle in their worship space. To this point Mass has been celebrated and no reserve sacrament has been kept in the facility, but now, on this unassuming and often deadly street in Baltimore, the real presence of Christ will reside day and night. This represents for those with a sacramental understanding or even those with a sacramental imagination, a shift in the atmosphere of this little church and it’s neighborhood.

Where the living presence of Christ is, there is change. When one steps into a space already inhabited by the consecrated host, there is a warmth and peace that emanates from the tabernacle. As prayers rise from Christ the Redeemer for the street, neighborhood, and city, please join them in asking God for His Kingdom to come in that place.

Building a Cathedral I

This is an update on the current status of affairs for the construction of the Diocesan Cathedral.

2020 has been anything but accommodating. It has thrown curve balls and obstacles left and right. The coronavirus pandemic has limited the flow of business on all fronts and has siphoned off momentum across the spectrum on diocesan projects and affairs. That being said, the cathedral construction project is still on track and in progress, with victories almost every week.

The bishop and his team currently consist of the Cathedral Rector’s Council, a civil engineer, an architect, a construction firm/general contractor, and will soon include a liturgical designer. The latest addition to the team, the contractors, are CAM Construction who have a wide variety of finished projects across Maryland and the D.C. area.

The cathedral will sit on roughly 4o Acres of rolling hills that, until now, have been farmland. The bishop and his team have purchased a massive marble altar, an ornate tabernacle and rear doss, a set of marble stations of the cross, and are in the process of considering floor plans for the sanctuary space. The sanctuary will be a cruciform design with considerations for modern technology, lighting, and sound equipment, while also facilitating nearly 300 seated persons. The property will have a pond, pavilion, two cemeteries, a rectory, and a sports field.

The bishop hopes to break ground as soon as possible and perhaps even before 2020 ends. He asks for the prayers of those that wish to support the cause and the diocese is asked to pray for funding and benefactors. The project is estimated to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 million dollars.

The property itself, is almost paid off in entirety and the cathedral, through God’s grace and generous gifts, has been able to pay in cash for the altar, stations of the cross, and most of the surveying, planning, permits, and state mandated research. As we approach the digging and building phase, we are bold in the promises we have received from the throne room and prayerful in light of the challenge set before us.

Please visit: https://belairchurch.com/building-a-cathedral-in-forest-hill/ to learn more and follow the timeline of blessings that God has provided. Alla re invited to become a part of this developing story.