Celebrating 20 Years with OLA
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Celebrating 20 Years with OLAOn August 15, 2021 OLA will celebrate its 20th Anniversary as a Parish. Where and when did we begin? Let’s take a look back in time to 1999.
In November 1999, the Diocese of Dallas decided that a “New Plano Parish” would be formed. Fr. Henry Petter was the pastor at the time of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish and he was appointed priest-in-charge. Deacon Mike Picard was assigned to the new parish in September 2000. Parish staff of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton were assigned as Business Manager and Staff Assistant. The first meeting of people interested in the new parish was help October 18, 2000. Shortly thereafter, Bishop Charles V. Grahmann assigned Msgr. John Bell as the sacramental priest until an official pastor could be named. Skaggs Elementary School in the Plano Independent School District was selected as the temporary facility for Sunday Masses.
On November 28, 2000, 124 people interested in liturgical ministries packed one of the classrooms at Seton to prepare for the first Mass. Brad Meyer took charge of Lectors, Robin Phelan Tuggle became the head of Extraordinary Ministers, John South volunteered to lead the Ushers, and Dan Eckelkamp led set-up and take-down, which would be a very important function for the next four years. The room was filled with excitement and anticipation, as everyone looked forward to meeting new friends and starting this new journey together.
On December 3, 2000, 389 people gathered in the Skaggs Elementary School gym to celebrate the first Mass of the New Plano Parish. Fr. Henry Petter was the presider, and Msgr. John Bell concelebrated. Throughout December, parishioners submitted suggestions for names of the parish. The ballot in early January included 55 names, inadvertently omitting “Our Lady of Angels” which had been suggested and was subsequently included as a write-in. The three top names, “St. Andrew,” “St. Nicholas,” and “Our Lady of Angels,” were submitted to the Bishop, who selected “Our Lady of Angels” as our name. By the end of 2000, we had 322 registered families in our parish.
By May 2001, the Finance Council was formed with the immediate task of buying land, which needed to be purchased within two years according to the rental agreement with the PISD. The Parish Pastoral Council was named. The first members of the PPC were Wayne Bruns, Angie Jakubik, Karla Matos, John McGraw, Brad Meyer, Shawna Mullarky-Kealy, Bob Patrick, John South, and Shane Tucker.
On August 15, 2001, the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, the parish Our Lady of Angels became a canonical entity. So, this bring us to August 15, 2021, twenty years later. Much has happened as we experienced growing pains, expansions, and this past year of pandemic closures and re-openings. We do not know what the future brings, but we will strive to continue to live our Mission Statement of “Love God, Embrace All People, and Share the Gospel Joyfully.”
Over the next few months, we will delve into the Parish Archives of the past 20 years to share some of that history with you in our Sunday Bulletins, OLA Website, Flocknote emails and other parish communications. For those who have been with us all along the way, we thank you for helping us grow our community. For those who are new or have joined us somewhere in these 20 years, we hope you find our memories enjoyable and help us make new memories.
