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The vision that grew into the flourishing parish of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was first formed in the minds of the Carmelite Fathers of Chicago in September, 1948, when they learned that the Diocese of Richmond had a growing Catholic population and a scarcity of priests. In the fall of 1951 the Carmelite Provincial offered the services of the Carmelite Fathers to help alleviate Richmond diocesan needs.
Correspondence between the Carmelite Fathers and diocesan officials led to an agreement that a new parish would be established in Warwick, a community adjacent to Newport News. Warwick was selected because of the availability of five wooded acres on East Warwick Road (now Harpersville Road). Under the agreement the Carmelite Fathers would assume charge of the new parish as soon as suitable living quarters could be found near the proposed church site.
In December 1952, the home of Mrs. B. L. Poindexter, located on 1.1 acres of land at 100 Harpersville Road (currently Carmel Center, the parish offices), was purchased for use as a rectory. In January 1953 the Carmelite Provincial offered the services of Father Norbert Piper as pastor and Father Frederic Manion as assistant pastor. The first public announcement of the new parish appeared in the Catholic Virginian on January 22, 1953, in an article which read in part as follows:
The newly appointed pastor, Father Norbert Piper, arrived on February 4, 1953. The next day the first Mass was said in the new rectory by Father Kenneth Moore, assistant to the Carmelite Provincial. On Sunday, February 8, about thirty parishioners gathered in the rectory chapel for the first parochial Mass.
During the following week permission was received to use the Warwick High School auditorium on Sundays. Two Masses were celebrated there each Sunday from February 15, 1953, until December 19, 1954. Since the auditorium was not available on week days, holy day Masses were at first celebrated on the side porch of the rectory while parishioners gathered on the adjoining lawn. Later, arrangements were made to have holy day Masses at the Village Theater in Hilton until the new school building would be available for this purpose.
Eventually the parish was able to acquire the surrounding land, and by 1954 owned nearly 10 acres. With this acquisition the possibility of a convent became a certainty, efforts were then made to find sisters to staff an elementary school at the parish. Mother Joan of Arc, Superior General of the Dominican Sisters of Nashville, Tennessee, visited the new parish on January 30, 1954. She inspected the future convent and agreed to furnish three teaching sisters in September 1954, providing the convent could be renovated and classrooms made ready by that time.
With Bishop Ireton's consent, it was decided in January, 1954 to erect on the new site the building that today faces Harpersville Road. The building would provide three classrooms for immediate needs by September, 1954, and would offer adequate space for social activities and a parish chapel to be ready in December, 1954.
After the first three grades of theschool opened in September, 1954, rapid progress was made in completing the remainder of our first large construction project. The southeast wing served as the social hall, the corresponding wing at the front of the building became our chapel.
By the end of 1954, the parish had a viable, functioning church, school, social center, and almost 10 acres of land. On January 16, 1955, the school, chapel and social hall were dedicated by Bishop Ireton.
Permission was received in 1957 to start construction of a badly needed activities building to serve as a temporary church. This building was completed in 1958. By 1962, five more classrooms, lavatories, lunchroom and kitchen were added to the school building. In March, 1965, the Bishop granted permission for the construction of a new convent and this was completed in October.
Bishop Russell granted permission in March, 1969 to build a new, smaller convent, and to convert the present larger convent to a rectory. Construction of the new convent began in August and was completed by early December. On December 6, 1969 our priests took up residence in the new rectory -the former convent.
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish did not see any more construction until 1984 when Bishop Walter Sullivan and Father Lukas Schmidt, O. Carm., Pastor, broke ground on July 16 for the new home for our church. The new Worship Center was dedicated by Bishop Sullivan on June 7, 1986.
In June, 1990, the Carmelite priests left, and Father Michael McCarron was named pastor by Bishop Sullivan.
On October 5, 1997, Bishop Sullivan blessed OLMC's new school addition and unveiled the building's name honoring Sister Camille, the presiding principal and Sister Mary William, OLMC's first principal. The new wing houses a library, computer and science lab and seven middle school classrooms.
On July 16, 2003, the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Bishop Walter Sullivan presided at the dedication of our new Parish Hall, Saint Michael Hall. The date was exactly one year from the day the parish broke ground on the community's new hall and conference center which is located on the old E. A. Harper property on Harpersville Road, adjacent to Carmel Center and the Worship Center.
Our first Mass in Spanish, Misa en Espaņol, was celebrated on January 4, 2004. At the same time, our Hispanic Ministry was begun to serve the needs of the growing Hispanic population of this area. This ministry provided a Spanish liturgy for non-English speakers and sacrament preparation for those who needed it.
In May, 2005 Fr. Ken Wood was appointed pastor by Bishop Francis DiLorenzo.