The Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Wayne celebrated a 60-year anniversary in October, and parishioners and visitors were given a special view of the past via a “Walk Down Memory Lane” in the church hallway.
Daniela Marino, a 22-year parishioner of the parish, was the Chairperson of the 60th-anniversary committee, and she and Karen Marron were involved with the “Walk Down Memory Lane” project, where poster-sized photo boards displaying the parish’s past were available for viewing.
A late October stroll through the hallway prior to a Saturday afternoon, 5 p.m. Mass yielded memories from the decades of 1963–1973, 1973–1983, and 1983–1993, and the displays now have progressed into the 2000s. Historical dates, photographs, and messages from church dignitaries and families reveal the early days of the parish up to the present.
Preparations for the 60th anniversary started a year ago when the committee met with Msgr. Raymond Kupke who described how the parish evolved. Msgr. Kupke is the diocesan archivist, a historian who teaches at Seton Hall University, and pastor of St. Anthony in Hawthorne.
Marron, who sent out an email to engage folks regarding the project, inviting all parishioners and friends to place their own photograph or memory from a particular decade on a poster board, said, “Engaging with our longtime parishioners and discussing the early years of our faith community and how their families contributed was the most rewarding aspect of creating the ‘Walk Down Memory Lane’ history and photo boards.”
Marino and Marron did have albums with photos from the past but also began to receive random pictures from parishioners. It fostered much discussion.
Marino said, “Karen would copy them, and we would end up sitting around and just reminiscing over them, trying to figure out what was in the old pictures. It became very interesting.”
Equally interesting was meeting older parishioners who had worshipped at the parish since they were children.
Marino added, “We started hearing their whole perspective on how they used to go to church and about the people in the area. I think the most important thing was that we got a whole table of the 10 families to come and share in the big event on Oct. 22, where the whole thing culminated.”
And for Marino, the photo of Father Joseph Ducas, pastor from 1963–1968, and Msgr. Stanley Schinski, pastor from 1966–2007, both with shovels and pitching dirt under umbrellas during the 1963 groundbreaking, was the most eye-opening return to yesteryear on Urban Club Road, where the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is located.
“It doesn't hit you until you see it,” Marino said. “But then, what was more interesting was that some of the children looked at it and said, ‘Oh my God, I cannot believe this. It was just ground.’ And they were looking outside to see because we have a beautiful sunset, and it was more interesting to watch it from their point of view.”
A banquet in celebration of the anniversary was held on Oct. 22 at the Barnyard and Carriage House in Wayne.