New Dumas Pastoral Center Dedication June 29

Dumas—The culmination of years of planning, designing and building a new facility for Sts. Peter and Paul Church is nearly finished.
 
Bishop Patrick J. Zurek will bless and dedicate the new Sts. Peter and Paul Pastoral Center Friday, June 29, following a 6:00pm Mass. A reception will follow the dedication ceremony.
 
The public is also invited to take a hospitality tour of the new Pastoral Center during an Open House Sunday, July 1 from 3:00pm to 6:00pm. The parish will also host a Salad Luncheon Wednesday, July 11, from 11:30am to 1:30pm. Tickets are $10.00 each and proceeds will benefit the Building Fund at Sts. Peter and Paul Church.
 
Why Sts. Peter and Paul Pastoral Center?
 
“Since we have a chapel, offices, classrooms and a fellowship hall, we really could not call this new building the parish hall or a catechetical center, so the term Pastoral Center encompasses all these features of our new building, hence the name,” said Father Gabriel E. Garcia, parochial administrator.
 
Ground was broken March 18, 2017 for the new 24,319 square foot facility. Rhodes Architecture Inc. of Amarillo was the architect of record.
 
On the west side of the building, facing Ninth Street, is a large white cross, designed by Nicolas Robles of Blessed Sacrament Church, Amarillo, who also designed the Blessed Sacrament monument at that parish (WTC 12/6/2015).
 
“The cross is 26 feet tall and there are really two crosses,” said Father Garcia. “The lattice work on the outer cross represents the parish working together; the open cross in the middle represents our openness to the Mystery of God.”
 
The new Pastoral Center has 12 classrooms, compared to five in the current parish facility. There is also a music room, a computer lab for ESL (English as a Second Language) classes, a meeting room, an office shared by youth ministry and RCIA and an office for Dumas Education and Social Ministries, a non-profit group.
 
One of the classrooms will be used by Knights of Columbus Council #5061 and another classroom will be utilized for the parish’s annual Thanksgiving Dinner, which traditionally takes place on the second Sunday of November.
 
The new Daily Mass and Adoration Chapel will seat between 75 and 80 people, according to Father Garcia.
 
“Furnishings for the chapel were all hand crafted by an artisan from oak,” he said. “Monies from a Memorial Fund established in the memory of Deacon Joe Schwertner helped to pay for the Altar, the Presider’s Chair, the Deacon’s Chair and the Presider’s Table, all in Deacon Schwertner’s memory.”
 
Parishioners also contributed funds to pay for the Credence Table, an Ambo and the Stations of the Cross.
 
There are five offices in the new building, compared to three in the former Parish Office. There is also an IT Room and a Conference Room.
 
The new Fellowship Hall seats 500 people, according to Father Garcia.
 
"The gathering area in the new Pastoral Center would hold the gathering area of the old building three times ."
 
The parish is also in the midst of a Brick Campaign. Bricks are $500 each and will go on the west wall of the south entrance of the new Pastoral Center.
 
Once old buildings are removed from the campus, the empty space will become additional parking for the parish. Future plans include constructing a children’s playground on a portion of the space where the former school building/church building currently sits.
 
Looking Back
According to diocesan archives, the town of Dumas appears in church records for the first time in 1901.
 
“Eva and Cecilia Stephens of Dumas, both possibly married Protestants, very possibly because there were no Catholics to marry, but they made a determined effort to give their children the Catholic Faith. The children of these families were baptized at the widely separated points of Amarillo, Channing and Guymon in the Oklahoma Territory.”
 
A second historical reference to Dumas shows that it was one of several parishes served by St. Anthony of Padua Church in Dalhart, after it was dedicated in 1907:
 
“The stations attended from Dalhart included Channing in Hartley County, Carlena and Texline in Dallam County, Dumas in Moore County, Texhoma and Stratford in Sherman County and Ochiltree in Ochiltree County.”
 
Diocesan records make mention of a Mass celebrated in a home in Dumas as early in 1914; but an actual recording of such a Mass is not available. It is possible, however, that it could have been celebrated, as Dumas was by that time a ‘station’ for the priest out of Dalhart.
 
The first Catholic Church property in Dumas was purchased in 1926. The first recorded Mass in Dumas was offered on Oct. 17, 1931 by Father (later Monsignor) John A. Steinlage. There were only seven people at the first Mass, which was celebrated at the John Bolton home at the then-end of Dumas Avenue.
 
Mass was celebrated every other Sunday from then on until then-Bishop Rudolph A. Gerken saw that a church was needed. Priests were saying Mass in “shacks and rooms most undesirable,” and never found a place large enough to accommodate all the people. The Dumas Independent School District built a new school and offered their former school auditorium for sale with five 25-foot lots.
 
The auditorium had rooms in the back where a priest and Mercy Workers could live. The school district offered the property for the incredibly low price of $1,000. Bishop Gerken jumped at the change to buy the building, but lacking funds of his own, he immediately appealed to Monsignor William O’Brien of the Catholic Church Extension Society.
 
“Your letter of June 16 was given to me at my sick bed Saturday afternoon by my secretary. When she started to read it, I said, ‘Please don’t read it, Bishop Gerken is in just the same position as anybody else. We haven’t any money for anything.’ Miss Mack insisted on reading the letter and when she got through, I said, ‘All right, if you can find $1,000 any place around the institution to send him, why, send it!’ It is surely one of the best bargains I have ever heard of, so we are sending a check for $1,000 as a designated gift for the purchase of this building and property at Dumas.”
 
This building at Seventh and Birge was dedicated by Bishop Gerken on July 17, 1932 to become Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Mission Church, a mission of Sacred Heart Cathedral, Amarillo. The auditorium was converted into a chapel, a large hall and three other rooms. It would serve the Faith Community for just over 25 years.
Sts. Peter and Paul Church was elevated to parish status on March 4, 1950 by then-Bishop Lawrence J. FitzSimon. The founding pastor was Father (later Monsignor) Fred Hyland, appointed on March 4, 1950. Father Hyland lasted as the first pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul for just about 10 weeks, followed on May 13, 1950 by Father Ed Chrisman. Father Chrisman’s time in Dumas was just as short, as he was replaced on July 21, 1950 by Father (later Monsignor) James Sonderman.
 
Having three different pastors in the space of the first five months of its existence as a parish may be a record.
 
By the early 1950’s, it was realized that the number of Catholic parishioners had outgrown the Seventh and Birge location. Enter J. Fred Phillips of Wood-Phillips Lumber Co. of Dumas—he offered to donate nine lots of land, if the Catholics would buy nine lots for $6,750.
 
The offer was accepted and the first building to be completed was a rectory in the winter of 1957. The school-auditorium was completed in the spring and dedicated on June 30, 1957, and that fall, classes were offered for first and second grade students.
 
The Knights of Columbus completed a convent for the School Sisters of St. Francis teaching at the school in the fall of 1958. This convent was later converted into parish offices. Grades three and four were added in 1958 and grades five and six were included in the fall of 1959. Due to increasing expenses required to support a school and opportunities offered by the Dumas Independent School District, the
Catholic School was discontinued in 1968.
 
Intentions of the parish were to temporarily celebrate Mass in the school-auditorium until a church could be built. The passage of time and payments on the new school and rectory held off the construction of a new church.
 
On March 1, 1981, groundbreaking for a new Sts. Peter and Paul Church took place. At the groundbreaking, each parish family was requested to bring an envelope of “Home Soil” to be placed in the foundation of the new church.

The new church was dedicated on Oct. 1, 1981 by then-Bishop Leroy T. Matthiesen, assisted by Father Gary Sides.