CHARLOTTE — Effective July 1, Queen of the Apostles Parish will assume pastoral care of St. Helen Mission, bringing the neighboring congregations together again under the same parish leadership.
The Diocese of Charlotte announced the transfer May 22, moving St. Helen from under the care of Our Lady of Consolation Parish in Charlotte, which has overseen the mission since 2000.
Located in Spencer Mountain, St. Helen sits within Queen of the Apostles’ parish boundaries and is located about eight miles away from the Belmont church. The mission was previously under Queen of the Apostles’ pastoral care in the 1960s and again in the 1990s.
Father Paul Buchanan, Queen of the Apostles’ pastor, will now serve St. Helen’s congregation of more than 50 families.
"I am looking forward to getting to know the community of St. Helen anew as I begin to serve as pastor,” Father Buchanan said. “I fondly remember visiting St. Helen in the early 2000s with the Capuchin friars, and I recall celebrating Mass at St. Helen on the second Sunday after my priestly ordination in 2014. It will be a joy to pick up the thread of that history as we journey together.”
St. Helen and Queen of the Apostles share deep historical roots. Both were founded by the Benedictine monks of nearby Belmont Abbey.
The Benedictines established St. Helen in the mid-1910s to serve local Black Catholics. The red brick church was designed by Benedictine Father Michael McInerney and built on land donated by Robert Gardin, a local convert to Catholicism whose descendants still worship there today.
That region of Gaston County area is booming, and Father Marcel Amadi, parochial administrator of Our Lady of Consolation Parish, said the transfer will help better serve St. Helen’s congregation, thanks to its proximity. It also will enable him to focus on Our Lady of Consolation Parish and its major church renovation campaign.
“Our Lady of Consolation will continue to share a special bond with St. Helen, one that has greatly enriched both churches,” Father Amadi said. “Please keep our communities in your prayers as we enter this new chapter.”
— Patricia L. Guilfoyle. File photos by Troy C. Hull.
