By Gary Topping–
The Kingdom of God, Jesus said, “is like mustard seed which, when planted in the soil, is the smallest of all the earth’s seeds, yet once it is sown, springs up to become the largest of shrubs, with branches big enough for the birds to build nests in its shade.” (Mark 4: 31-32) So it is with that tiny but vitally important part of the Kingdom of God, St. Thomas More parish: from the humblest of beginnings it has grown into a large and lively parish and a vital witness to Christ in the community.
A basic fact of Utah history is the constant population expansion from its origin on the northern end of Salt Lake Valley southward to Point of the Mountain and on into Utah Valley. As that population has grown, the Catholic diocese has had to keep pace by opening an ever lengthening chain of parishes from the Cathedral of the Madeleine to St. Ann to St. Vincent de Paul. By the early 1980s the boundaries of St. Vincent parish had ballooned so far to the south that Bishop William K. Weigand found it necessary to create Blessed Sacrament parish in Sandy and St. Thomas More parish in what would become Cottonwood Heights. He dedicated the latter on November 13, 1981.
That little mustard seed of a parish consisted of only about sixty-five families, but quickly grew to about one hundred fifty. And where to plant that seed? The parish had no building. Father Maurice J. Moran, the first pastor, had to exercise some creativity. Ironically, the parish held its first services at the Cannon Mortuary, typically a place for the ending of life, not its beginning. Before long, though, Fr. Moran enlisted the use of the much more appropriate St. James Episcopal church on Highland Drive where, at this writing, the Unitarian-Universalist church has its quarters.
In 1982, after casting about for a permanent site, the parish purchased six acres in a verdant little cove on Creek Road which would become the nucleus of the present parish complex. Rather than immediately beginning work on the church, the parish elected instead to start with a multi-purpose center; a basketball court was not an ideal site for celebrating Mass, but one would not think of playing basketball in a church. Besides, the multi-purpose center could include classrooms and provide a setting for other social and religious activities. Ground was broken on October 19, 1983 and Bishop Weigand dedicated the site on March 21, 1984. The little seed was beginning to sprout.
The untimely death of Fr. Moran on January 31, 1985 meant that that pioneering priest lived to see no more than the sprout. On the positive side, Fr. Terence Moore was installed as the second pastor in June, 1985. A handsome young Irish priest with a musical brogue and a charismatic personality, he would see the parish through to the completion and dedication of the new church.
Also preceding the construction of the church was the new rectory. The parish priest had originally resided in a rental property on nearby Summer Oaks Circle. Construction of the present rectory began in the spring of 1986 and was completed the following year, to be dedicated by Bishop Weigand on March 8, 1987.
To design the church building, the parish secured the services of the architectural firm Gillies Stransky Brems Smith which at the time was developing a reputation for “green” architecture that took advantage of natural features in the surrounding landscape. The lead architect for the St. Thomas More project was Mike Stransky, a Wyoming native, a graduate of the architecture program at the University of Utah, and long-time parishioner at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. His ideas created one of the truly remarkable structures in the Diocese of Salt Lake City. Its steeply pitched roof leads to a sharp peak that echoes the ragged Wasatch Mountains which can be seen from the church. High windows flanking the north and south sides of the church bring the outdoors inside. The most notable feature of the building, though, is the concrete shelves beneath each of the windows on the south which keep out the direct rays of the sun, but allow the light to bathe the chapel area, giving it a strikingly open and airy appearance. Work on the church was begun in March, 1993 and Bishop Weigand dedicated the building on November 21, 1993. Stranky’s work won the U.S. American Institute of Architects award for church design in 1995.
At the time of its dedication, the new parish adopted Psalm 121 as its theme. Fittingly for the setting of the new church, the psalm begins, “I lift my eyes toward the mountains; whence shall help come to me?” The text of the psalm is etched into a window at the church entrance.. Our hearts are lifted up in prayer every time we enter the church yard, as the roof of the church directs our gaze beyond to the mountains and beyond the mountains to God himself, “whence comes our help.”
St. Thomas More parish has always been known for its social programs through which it ministers to the needs of the larger community. Examples would be the food drives at Thanksgiving and Christmas which collect donations for the community Food Bank. At this writing, the parish is conducting a Diaper Drive to support needy parents with unplanned pregnancies. By far the most renowned of the parish programs, though, has been the annual Days of Yore festival, a day-long celebration with bands, food, music, games, a 5K run and a golf tournament. Begun in 1994 by Fr. Moore, the Days of Yore probably attained its highest level of festivity during the pastorate (2002-2014) of the ebullient Fr. Dave Van Massenhove.
In 2015, remembering its own nomadic past, as Fr. John Evans, who negotiated the arrangement put it, the parish welcomed into our facilities a Greek Orthodox mission of one hundred thirty families. They held services in what was once a warehouse in the west wing of the parish center and shared our social hall and classrooms. It was a mutually beneficial relationship: their rental fee helped the parish and the parish provided for them a home. The relationship terminated in 2021 when our Orthodox brothers and sisters found a home of their own, but our love for each other persists.
Today, with a membership of over 1,200 families and a wide variety of parish organizations and activities, the branches of the mustard tree have truly become a nest for many birds.
*Gary Topping is a writer and historian living in Salt Lake City, Utah. He is the retired archivist for the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City and has written many books and articles.
