Our History
In 1902 Cardinal Gibbons gave permission to build a Catholic Church in Severna Park to
be named St. Agnes and to be staffed by Redemptorists. In January 1927 a site was selected
on Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard for the new church, and on September 14, 1927 the
dedication and first mass was held for St. John's Church. In 1959 Archbishop Francis Keogh
realized that St. John's could no longer be a mission church of St. Mary's in Annapolis
and that the little brown church on Baltimore-Annapolis Blvd. could no longer house the
growing population. Therefore in June 1959 Archbishop Keogh named St. John's as an
independent parish and appointed Fr. Joseph Raley as the first resident pastor.
Since property had been purchased in 1957 from Mrs. Elizabeth Tecl, Fr. Raley
immediately began the construction of a convent, school, and rectory on approximately 12
acres at the southeast corner of Ritchie Highway and Cypress Creek Road. Ground was broken
for the new church building in May 1963. The architects, Gaudreau and Gaudreau, completed
the church in 1964 and it was formally dedicated on May 10, 1964. The church is in a
striking cruciform shape and approximately 1200 parishioners can gather at one time to
praise God.
After twenty-two years of dedicated service, Fr. Raley in failing health retired as
pastor on January 3, 1981. He passed away on March 31, 1988 and a plaque in his memory
hangs in the vestibule of the main entrance to the church.
Upon Fr. Raley's retirement Archbishop William D. Borders appointed Fr. Edward Staub as
the second pastor of St. John's parish. Many changes and improvements have been made to
the inside of the church since Msgr. Staub became pastor, including the installation of a
beautiful pipe organ in 1984.
Important milestones include:
- 1927 The original St. John the Evangelist Church dedicated First Mass.
- 1951 Construction of our Parish Hall was begun.
- 1959 St. John the Evangelist Parish became an independent parish and Reverend Joseph E.
Raley was named Pastor.
- 1960 The School, Rectory, and Convent were completed.
- 1964 The current St. John the Evangelist Church dedicated First Mass.
Reverend Monsignor Edward F. Staub assumed responsibility as pastor of St. John's on
January 18th, 1982. Under his leadership, many parish ministries were initiated for
prayer, outreach to the poor and hungry, visitation to the homebound parishioners, adult
education and youth ministry. In 1997, the parish needed to adress the needs of growth in
numbers of families and the current facilities. In planning, Msgr. Staub and the parish
felt that a number of additions were needed to the existing parish plant. Under the title
of "Sharing our Blessings, Building our future," an ambitious building campaign
was started for the projected amount of 4.5 million dollars. After much planning and
sacrifice, the groundbreaking occured on December 4,1999 for the contruction of five
additional classrooms, A Youth Ministry Center, Religious Education Center, Parish
Library, Church Gathering Space and Meeting Room. In addition, major renovations occurred
to four existing school classrooms to provide a new computer lab, language lab, science
lab and administrative space.
In the midst of so much activity to plan for the future of St. John, a time of sadness
visited the parish at Monsignor Edward Staub's death on May 12,2000. Cardinal Keeler,
accompanied by over 100 priests and a full church of staff and parishioners, celebrated
the Mass of Christian Burial for Monsignor Staub. Archbishop William D. Borders, Msgr.
Staub's dear friend preached the homily.
On June 14, 2000, Rev. Mitchell T. Rozanski arrived as the temporary administrator of
St. John with his primary task of seeing through the completion of the building project.
With William Cardinal Keeler, the entire parish joined in celebrating the dedication of so
many years' work on Sunday, November 26, 2000. In January of 2001, Fr.
Rozanski was officially named the third pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church.The parish continued to to flourish under the leadership of Father Rozanski. In the summer of 2004, Pope John Paul named Father Rozanski a bishop of the Church. Currently, Bishop Rozanski serves as the Vicar of the Eastern Vicariate, which includes the parish of St. John the Evangelist.
Father George Gannon, the associate pastor was assigned as administrator soon after Bishop Rozanski was ordained bishop and remained in that position until January of 2005 when Msgr. Richard Woy was named pastor. Msgr. Woy continues to lead the parish with enthusiam. Msgr. Woy has instituted a formalized planning process in the parish and has stengthened its infra-stucture. He guides with strong administrative and pastoral skills.
Today, we have a parish family of 3,300 families,
an excellent elementary school , an active religious education
program, and spiritual and social activities for
all ages. We continue to strive to be the presence of our Risen
Lord in our local Severna Park community and beyond.
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