CINCINNATI (Jan 16, 2003)—Glenmary Home Missioners Executive Council agreed Jan. 8, 2003, to rebuild what has come to be known as “The Old Farmhouse” by thousands of high school and college volunteers across the country. The building, used for decades as the main lodging and gathering space for Glenmary’s Group Volunteer Program, burned to the ground Dec. 5, 2002. No one was injured in the fire.

The well-over-100-year-old log structure had been used for the past two years as a chapel. All that remains is part of its stone chimney.

The new structure will be elevated as protection from the frequent flooding of the creek which borders the Glenmary Farm. Preliminary plans call for incorporating the remaining stones from the Old Farmhouse chimney into the new design, as well as commissioning local artist Charley Campbell to create stained-glass windows. His windows for the original chapel, depicting the four seasons, were destroyed in the fire.

The Glenmary Farm in Eastern Kentucky has been the site of Glenmary’s Group Volunteer Program for over 25 years. Designed to give participants a firsthand experience of missionary service in the Appalachian region, the program is run by Glenmary Home Missioners. This order of Catholic priests and brothers, along with coworkers, staff over 60 missions in Appalachia, the South and the Southwest.

The Farm is an integral part of life in Lewis County, one of the poorest counties in Kentucky. Farm volunteers have had a tremendous impact on the area and have earned the respect and support of the local community where, until recent years, anti-Catholic sentiment still ran high.

“The chapel is a pivotal part of our volunteer program,” says Father Jerry Dorn, president of Glenmary and former director of the Farm. “The Farm experience is meant to be a retreat-like mission immersion, not just a work camp. In deciding to rebuild the chapel, we are ensuring that there is a quiet, reflective space where volunteers can begin to integrate the life-altering experiences that sometimes happen during such an immersion.”

Dave Kreher, director of People’s Self-Help Housing in Vanceburg and a former Farm volunteer, has been named the general contractor for the rebuilding project. In addition, Glenmary Father George Mathis, an artist and liturgical design consultant, and Brother Joe Steen, a master carpenter who heads a very successful Habitat for Humanity program in Mississippi, have been contacted to give input.

“The loss of the Old Farmhouse in December was devastating to so many of us,” Father Jerry says. “But now we are moving forward in hope.” He, as well as Susan Hellmann, director of the volunteer program, and the Glenmary finance office will be working with Kreher on developing plans and setting a date for groundbreaking, possibly as early as spring,

Kreher believes there are many possibilities to recapture the spirit of the building that gave rise to the Farm motto: The place where peace came and stayed. “I believe it is important to build up again out of the ashes,” Kreher says. “It’s a part of the cycle of life and death.”