The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 518

Sunday, Nov. 22, 1987 The Philadelphia Inquirer 3-NE )i i Wtc ii v. The monsignor in a kindergarten classroom. A group of parishioners built St. William's new kindergarten building, where 100 1 plex.

But, said Kelly, its growth spurt is not unique, particularly among parishes in the Northeast, including St. Katherine of Siena in Torresdale, Maternity Blessed Virgin Mary in Bustle-ton, Our Lady of Ransom, St. Cecelia's in Fox Chase and St. Anselm's in Parkwood. Kelly attributed growth in the Northeast parishes, as in parishes elsewhere, to the natural turnover of generations like that taking place in St.

William's. In many cases, however, she said it also is because land is still available in the Northeast and is being turned into housing at a rapid rate. That is not the case in Lawncrest, which experienced much of its growth after World War I and hasn't changed much in the last 40 years. Its housing values go steadily upward and the population stays middle class and white. Although the open fields that long ago attracted Irish and German immigrants are gone, today's residents to hear them talk are as proud of their community and parish as their predecessors must have been.

It's a nice place to live and go to Th Philsdalphia Inquirer WILLIAM F. STEINMETi youngsters are now enrolled. Th Philsdalphia Inquitw WILLIAM F. STEINMETZ fifth grade, has belonged to St. William's for 48 years.

For all of those years, she has been playing the organ at church. Now, she is the musical director and a parish council member, and she teaches water exercises and line dancing many parishioners are her students at the Lawncrest Community Center, down the street from the church. Between St. William's and the community center, she said, "I know just about everybody in Lawncrest." Compared to Collins and Green, Tom Kinka is a relative newcomer. But Msgr.

Mortimer says he is one of the most visible and helpful parishioners. A lumber salesman, Kinka moved to Lawncrest in 1973; his wife grew up in St. William's parish. Their two youngest children altend the parish school. An original member of I he Hummer and Nail Club, he helped build the kindergarten and has been working this month, at night and on weekends, to finish the day care cenler.

"We're just a bunch of guys, 10 crazy guys, who get together and work like hell," he said. school and church, they say. Many work to keep it that way. Marie Collins' mother did block collection for St. William's, and her father was a sexton.

She and her husband, Daniel, both went to the parish school and sent their five children, including Betsy Wilson, there. Now, their three grandchildren are enrolled. Collins, 66, sings in the church choir and, with her husband, does fund-raising. Wilson is on the home and school executive board and is involved in fund-raising and a church program to feed the homeless, while her husband, Bill, frequently volunteers his time and muscles. A lineman for the telephone company, he paints, digs holes, fixes things and helps decorate at Christmas whatever the monsignor needs.

"lie gets the call, he goes," said his wife. For Collins, St. William's is a second home. "There's a warm bond," she said. "It's such a comfort to go into a church that you've been going to all your life.

It's just home." Betty Green, whose family moved to Lawncrest when she was in fhe perately needed reasonably priced, reliable day care nearby. "People have to go to work," Sister Stella said. Msgr. Mortimer listened to her plea and, while supportive, told her that with all the building already going on in the parish, it would probably take a year or two to pull a day-care project together. But he urged her to begin researching the idea.

Just a few months later, she had found the perfect building for her day-care center, one that was very close to the church and school and had a historic link to the parish, besides. "This all happened so quickly," Sister Stella said, "you just have to believe in a higher power." And, perhaps, in the generosity of the parish. So far, parishioners have raised $600,000 of the needed $1 million for the building program, whose intensity and variety belies St. William's size. Geographically, it is one of the smallest of the city's 133 parishes, according to Marie Kelly, spokeswoman for the archdiocese.

lis bound-' aries are Godfrey Avenue, Tookany Creek Parkway, Magce Avenue and the Naval Aviation Supply Office com One has only to visit the Rising Sun Avenue shopping strip near the church which itself has undergone a modernization in the last few years to see the past and future of St. William's. In almost equal numbers, walking from shop to shop under the maple trees, are senior citizens and young women with children. There is another reason why the church's latest acquisition is symbolic: The first Mass ever celebrated in St. William's parish was said upstairs in Germania Mannerchor.

The church building was finished four years later, in 1924. "We've come full circle," the monsignor said. As another part of its look to the future, the parish late last year hired Sister Stella Valerio to be its first social minister, working with the elderly and counseling teenage pregnant girls, troubled married couples and others. A native of South Philadelphia, she had been on the job only five months when she reported to Msgr. Mortimer what the parish's single and working parents had been telling her with alarming frequency that they des.