CHRIST ON THE MOUNTAIN (1975)

As Jefferson County subdivisions began to climb the foothills during the 1970s, Archbishop Casey recognized the need for another parish in western Lakewood.

Richard B. Ling, appointed founding pastor on July 1, 1975, determined to make Christ on the Mountain an "open church," a post-Vatican II parish where the laity accepted full responsibilities. Parishioner Joyce Frink won the contest to name the church, which was planned and developed with lay input. Father Ling held the first Mass in Green Mountain High School on July 19, 1975, while he and the membership began working on their dream parish.

Hoping to translate the aspiration of a post-Vatican II church into architectural reality, Father Ling and the Parish Profile Committee hired Denver architect Paul Foster, a graduate of Regis College and the University of California at Berkeley architectural school, to design a different kind of church. Speaking of the controversial result in 1987, Foster recollected:

Father Ling, an outstanding liturgist, wanted to model Christ on the Mountain on the simpler earlier church. He asked me to simplify the symbolism in a "nonchurchy" church, which could serve many different functions. So we designed a box with poured-in-place concrete for a base and a wood frame and a textured, tawny-colored precast concrete panel superstructure. Inside, we used movable couches instead of pews. Harkening back to the early church, we designed a entry baptistry large enough for total immersion.

This boxy, brown church on the grassy eastern slope of Green Mountain greets visitors with the sound of running water. That happy splashing bubbles out of a copper tube fountain in its three-foot deep baptismal pool, which parish wits labeled Ling's Lagoon. Inside, the exposed redwood ceiling beams and the wrought iron sculptured stations of the cross are among the few embellishments. The movable altar platform and lectern are in the center of the hall, so parishioners look at each other as well as at the service. Underneath the church, a full basement contains a kitchen, a large multi-purpose hall, classrooms, and conference rooms.

After the church was dedicated October 28, 1978, on its seven-acre site, the parish bought a house at 12461 West Dakota Drive in September 1979, for use as a rectory and parish office. John F. X. Burton, SJ, who became the second pastor of Christ on the Mountain in 1982, reports:

The volunteerism of this parish is outstanding. Over 40 percent are active in one way or another. With over 500 parish families, we put this structure to many uses, ranging from our donut Sundays to parish dances, from our Family Life Ministry programs to religious ed[ucation] classes, from exercise classes to the Knights of Columbus Mothers' Day pancake breakfasts.

The future of the parish is bright with promise, as the number of families increases, as new responses to people's needs become reality, as the parish strives to remain faithful to being an "open church."