Worthington St. Michael the Archangel Church, 5750 N. High St., will begin a celebration of its 80th anniversary with two concerts on Saturday, Dec. 6.
The first, at 5:30 p.m. after the 4 p.m. Saturday Mass, will feature the St. Michael School Schola choir, which specializes in Gregorian chant.
The second, at 6:30, will be a re-creation of an album recorded in 1976 by the parish choir and will include the choirs of both St. Michael and St. Peter St. Joan of Arc Church of Columbus and Powell.
The voice from the original album of Father John Byrne, St. Michael’s founding pastor, who served the church from 1946 to 1976, will provide the narration. A reception will follow.
Proceeds from a goodwill offering at the concert will be split between the St. Michael and St. Peter St. Joan of Arc conferences of the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
Besides beginning the 80th anniversary celebration, the concert will mark the 50th anniversary of the album, titled “Rejoice,” which was a fundraiser for an organ that has since been replaced by the church’s current organ.
St. Peter and St. Michael churches have ties going back to 1973, when the current St. Peter Church opened and St. Michael parishioners living west of the Olentangy River began attending services there. St. Peter and St. Joan of Arc churches, which are 2½ miles from each other, merged into a single parish on June 30, 2024.
St. Michael Church, along with Our Lady of Peace Church in the Clintonville neighborhood of Columbus and Christ the King Church on the city’s east side, were established on Dec. 1, 1946 by Bishop Michael Ready because of the growth in those areas resulting from the post-World War II housing boom.
The current St. Michael Church was built in 1964 and renovated in 1999. Weekend Masses are at 4 p.m. Saturday and 8:30 and 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 and 5 p.m. Sunday, with weekday Masses at 6:30 and 8:15 a.m. weekdays, 6 p.m. Wednesdays and 8:15 a.m. Saturdays. Eucharistic Adoration in the parish chapel is on Mondays from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., resuming on Tuesdays at 5 a.m. and continuing until 9 p.m. Friday. On other days of the week, the Blessed Sacrament is reposed in the tabernacle.
In 2013, the parish adopted the theme “Rise Up Now!” as a unifying phrase expressing its aspiration to be “a Catholic community on fire for the Lord that inspires people to … become active disciples to fulfill God’s purpose in their lives,” as proclaimed in its mission statement.
The parish has about 1,250 families. At the time of its founding, it had about 80 families, with 128 people attending its first Mass, celebrated by Father Byrne in the chapel of the nearby Pontifical College Josephinum.
The parish school started in the fall of 1946 with two sisters teaching two grades each. The school, church and rectory all were in the mansion at North High Street and Selby Boulevard built by the Rev. Philander Chase, who was Episcopal bishop of Ohio from 1819 to 1832. An Army Quonset hut also was used for a time for school and Masses. A combined church and school building was built in 1954 and the current church was completed 10 years later.
The Joliet Franciscan sisters who taught at the school until 1974 used the mansion as a convent from 1954 until 1967, when it was torn down and replaced by a new convent now occupied by the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, who accepted Bishop Frederick Campbell’s invitation to come to the parish in 2011 and have remained since then.
St. Michael’s staff includes Father Stash Dailey, pastor; Father David Johhstone, parochial vicar; Father Robert Kitsmiller, priest in residence; Deacons John Crerand and Bill Demidovich; Sister Riya Mary, pastoral minister: Jake Asuncion, youth minister: Jake Neal, OCIA director; Kris Jesse, business manager: Kathy Trafford, secretary; Rhonda Marinelli, receptionist; Rebecca Lund, marketing and communications: Ron Barrett, choir director and organist: Sister Mary Regina, OP, school principal and Laura Wells, preschool director.