Facilities

Holy Family Church and parish facilities sit upon two plots of land: one seven acres and the other, three. We are adjacent to the Woodmore Country Club, just past the trees behind the church and its associated buildings. The foundation for the church was set down in 1890 and construction took two years. It was a mission of the Jesuits from White Marsh (now Sacred Heart Church). Later the administration moved to Ascension in Bowie and in 1938 the Josephites came and the parish received its own resident pastor. When they left in 1972, the parish came under the charge of archdiocesan clergy.

The Parish Rectory houses both the church offices and is the residence for the assigned pastor. The lower level has the living room converted into a large office space for the parish office manager (secretary) and there is an office for the pastor. The lower level also includes a dining room, kitchen, bathroom and a small pantry. The upper level includes two suites, one for the pastor and the other for guest priests. It also functions as a TV room. Both sweets include two rooms and a bathroom.

The Parish Modular Building provides need-ed classroom space for the parish religious education program. It consists of four rooms which can be made into one long room when the wall panels are collapsed. The facility was added in 2008. In order to get the permit, Park and Planning required us to plant 500 additional trees in the field used for supplemental parking. A necessary asset for the parish, it has in no way taken away from the historical makeup of the parish setting.

The Parish Hall replaced a previous small hall building and it opened in 1992. Since the church has no bathrooms, all facilities for the church and hall functions are in the hall. The hall includes the current office for the parish director of religious education who is also the moderator for PG Community Resources. The hall includes a conference/classroom with a small parish library. The main room of the hall is called The Heritage Room. There is also a warming kitchen. The hall is a modern facility situated in a rich historical and rural setting. The hall architecturally complements the adjacent century-old Holy Family Church, a county historical landmark. Up to 300 guests can enjoy the wooded country setting.

The Saint John Memorial Prayer Center has a long and mixed history as first the Knights of Saint John Hall and later simply as the Tractor Shed. The tilted roof of the old parish hall was utilized for the flat roof that was original to the building. During renovation we found the double-roof. There is a vestigial chimney in the back from when the building included a wood-burning stove. We dismantled a second-level that was only added to store old kneelers and other junk items. The tractor was sold by the previous pastor and the building was in a poor state. Items of questionable value and boxes for collections were stored in the building. It really came to serve little purpose. A number of the Knights of Columbus, notably Bobby Ramiro, Roy Cobo, Nino Foronda and Kevin Renze (along with his boys) donated many hours of hard work to renew and to restore the meeting space. Today it has seating for thirty and functions as both a meeting place and as a makeshift chapel for small liturgies and Eucharistic adoration.

The Parish Meeting Room started out as merely a cinderblock shed that used to house aging maintenance supplies. There was a time when it was divided into three small rooms, one which was home to the pastor’s cat that had made herself unwanted in the rectory (no worry, she had plenty of food, water, toys, a stretch housing, a fan against the heat and a heater against the cold). The mean but sometimes affectionate animal came with Fr. Jenkins and he joked that it consumed 20 years of his life. As with the old tractor shed, the Knights renovated this building and made it functional as a meeting room for the Knights of Columbus and other parish organizations.

The Holy Family Parish Food Pantry is under the stewardship of parishioner, Marsha Hansen. We keep shelves and shelves of canned foods, cereals and so much else. While we do not operate with regular hours, it is available for emergency help. We also use the pantry for our two big seasonal outreach efforts for Thanksgiving in November and for Christmas in December. While food is restocked from various local sources, this ministry is maintained by the wonderful generosity of parishioners.

The Holy Family Parish Storehouse was formerly used by Fr. Michael C. Kidd as a garage for his car. However, the priests who came after him found it too small and so it remained unused. We added a floor and insulated the walls and turned it into a small storage building of the parish.

This also made it possible to transfer items from the Tractor Shed (now the St. John Memorial Prayer Center).

Holy Family Catholic Cemetery, like the parish church, is designated as an official historical site in Prince George’s County, MD.

There are over 250 graves. Unfortunately, many of the markers have fallen apart or gone missing over the years. One of our hopes is a restoration of the cemetery and the clear demarcation of graves. We also hope to put up a memorial with all the names of those known to be buried here.

Mary’s Garden faces the church and separates the side two parking lots. It includes a Memorial to the Unborn Child, a large statue of the Blessed Mother and various flowers. It is a choice spot for photos after sacraments and for Mother’s and Father’s Day family gatherings after Masses.

Outdoor Stations of the Cross adorn a private space behind the hall for uninterrupted prayer and devotion. The project includes a large statue of the resurrected Christ and fourteen traditional stations. The housing was made from vinyl decking material and the figures are in brass. All this was a gift of time and talent from Gregory Rozanski with family and friends as part of his Eagle Scout Project a decade ago. A number of our Knights of Columbus assisted with the effort.