Newtown Man Creates Church Altar Pieces—

One Carpenter Uses His Craft To Honor Another

By Shannon Hicks

It is always a special event when a Catholic church welcomes its bishop for the presentation of a homily. When Bishop William Lori presents the homily at St Patrick’s Church in Redding Ridge this weekend, he will be welcomed into a parish that will be moving into a new church building. A Newtown resident, David Whitlock, is one of many who have played an important part of creating the new church.

Mr Whitlock, who is a member of St Patrick’s, constructed the building’s new altar, ambo, altar of reservation, and baptism font. And before they were installed last week, the church’s pastor was already pleased with the pieces.

“They’re incredibly beautiful,” said Father Russell Augustine. “What a carpenter he is. He’s an artist.”

Mr Whitlock worked from designs created by Dan Conlin, the church’s architect. The four pieces he built in his workshop were delivered and installed into the church last Friday afternoon. By early this week he was down to putting the final touches on one last piece, a credence table, which will serve as a table placed in front of the altar for receiving gifts.

The Whitlocks — Dave, his wife Michelle, and their three children — live in a gorgeous home on Poverty Hollow Road that has also grown as the family has increased in size. Purchased as a small five-apartment dwelling by the couple when they were first married, the Whitlock home has since become a comfortable single-family home thanks in large part to a major four-month project led by the Whitlocks in which they raised the roof, dropped walls, built new rooms and increased the home’s value and comfort level tremendously.

In renovating his home, Mr Whitlock used the same self-taught procedures — with integrity and quality — that goes into every piece he creates, whether an altar for a church or a home entertainment center.

He was given the green light for the St Patrick’s project in July after being recommended by neighbor and fellow church member Rudy Pozek, who is a member of the church’s building committee.

“Rudy sees a lot of stuff going out of here, so I think he felt comfortable recommending me,” Mr Whitlock said.

His hope, he said, is to expand his carpentry business, Whitlock Cabinet Works. Mr Whitlock works out of his workshop while his wife Michelle is at work in Stamford, oldest son Willie is at St Rose School in Newtown, and youngest children Adele and Timmy are at Hudson Montessori School. He works while the house is empty — once all three kids are safely dropped off at their respective schools and lasts only until Willie gets off the school bus midafternoon.

When David and Michelle Whitlock were first married 11 years ago, Mr Whitlock worked for others, first as a carpenter and then doing kitchen installation for contractors in lower Fairfield County.

“I used to do high profile kitchens in Stamford and Greenwich, always in Fairfield County, but the travel became too much,” he said. Once the children were born, Mr Whitlock combined his love of working alone with wanting to be available at home while his wife continued her corporate job.

“Her job, the hours, are not flexible. Mine is,” he said. “My work day is 9:30 to 3. When Willie gets off the bus, that’s it. I’m done. It’s homework and snack time for us.

“I’m trying to build my business, but the kids, my family, that’s my priority.”

Once he got the go-ahead for the church project, Mr Whitlock was able to juggle that work with a few other projects this summer. He spent a few weeks working on the church pieces, he said, and then worked on a project for a client in Fairfield. He returned to the St Patrick’s work for a few more weeks, and then devoted some of his time to a project at Hudson Montessori School. Most recently he installed a kitchen in Southbury.

“I like doing this stuff,” Mr Whitlock said this week. “I can do kitchens in my sleep, but that’s not my dream. Installing kitchens, doing trim — that’s not my ultimate destination to work in.”

What Mr Whitlock would like to do is design, fabricate, finish, and install more of his own work. The work that he has done for St Patrick’s Church can only help with that wish. Visitors and regular parishioners will be seeing his work in that building for years.

“Dave was contacted because he is a parishioner and people were aware of his skill,” said Father Augustine. The worship service on October 8 will be all-inclusive blessing; Bishop Lori, said Father Augustine, will begin by anointing the building’s walls and then move on to individual pieces.

“It’s not just an anointing dedication of this altar,” Father Augustine said. “Everything will be done.

“The new church, as it is right now, is simply a great big building,” he continued. “It’s not until the bishop comes that everything will be dedicated, and anointed. After those blessings, including the blessing of the altar, that’s when the building will officially become our new church.”

In addition to the four commissioned pieces, Mr Whitlock created a new pole and base for the church’s processional cross. That was, he said, his personal gift for the pastor.

“It’s pretty incredible,” Mr Whitlock said this week, looking at photos of the four pieces that were sent over to St Patrick’s Church last week. “This is actually the first job that means something to me.”

St Patrick’s Church, established in 1880 as a simple mission church (which allowed people to celebrate Sunday mass without having to travel far), became an independent parish in the Diocese of Bridgeport in 1980.

In designing the new building, the church’s steering committee felt it was important to remain balanced in both architectural style and size to its neighborhood. The church has about 400 member families, 35 of which joined just last year. The new building will just about double the size of the existing church, which will not be demolished.

Planning and discussion of building a new church started years ago, said Father Augustine, but it was not until 2000 that serious planning began and not until last fall — nearly one year ago — that construction began.