Auxiliary Bishop To Celebrate Easter Sunday Mass At Alma Mater, Severna Park High School

Bishop Adam Parker will celebrate Easter Sunday Mass for St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church on Sunday, April 20, at 9:00am in the auditorium of Severna Park High School.

Long before Severna Park native Most Rev. Adam Parker, auxiliary bishop of Baltimore in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, earned his title and place among the leadership of the Catholic church, he was simply one of the Parker brothers, attending Benefield Elementary School, Severna Park Middle School and finally Severna Park High School (SPHS).

On March 31, Parker returned to SPHS and was warmly welcomed by class of 1990 classmate and current SPHS teacher Kevin Schiavone. There were no formalities, just two friends who’ve known each other since middle school catching up, reminiscing and talking about mutual friends.

“Never in 100 years could I have ever imagined returning to Severna Park High School, as a bishop, to celebrate Mass!” Parker said.

Due to the renovation of St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, the church has rented the high school auditorium on Easter Sunday, when two masses will be celebrated at 9:00am and 11:00am. Parker will be the 9:00am mass celebrant.

SPHS Principal Nathan Johnson, Schiavone and senior Emilie McKenna, a St. John parishioner who was confirmed by Parker in 2022, escorted the bishop through the new school, which opened in 2016.

The first thing the bishop noticed was how open, light and inviting the school was. Schiavone and Parker joked about the narrow gray hallways of the former school, with poor lighting and low ceilings.

“This is really beautiful,” Parker observed. “It feels more like a college than a high school.”

The group visited the gymnasium and the weight room where the Falcon football players were working out. The friends recalled how the gym lights in the former school took 10 minutes to warm up and come on, and even then, the space had a dark, yellow tint.

As they walked the hallways, the bishop received an education on school vernacular. Home economics is now FACS, or family and consumer sciences. The library is the media center and includes much more than books. Technology in the 1980s meant overhead projectors and high-speed copy machines. Today, classrooms are filled with technology that wasn’t even invented in the 1980s.

As the group passed the wall of “Rock ‘N’ Roll Revival” posters, Parker was quick to note it was the class of ‘90 that came up with the first show.

“It was only about an hour long and it was put together by a couple students,” Parker recalled. Schiavone added that football coach Andy Borland sang in the event as “The Big Bopper,” Jiles Perry Richardson Jr. “It was so much fun. It’s great that it’s lasted this long and has gotten to be so good,” Parker said.

Parker was especially excited to see the SPTV studio, and he shared that he was a live reporter and anchor for the former Insight TV. He was impressed by the cameras and equipment in the current studio.

Schiavone and Parker talked about former classmates who are teaching in the Anne Arundel County Public Schools system, including those at Severna Park High School like Tim Dunbar and Elaine Robertson. The bishop was stopped by a staff member who said he had confirmed her daughter years before. He was also recognized by parents picking up their children in front of school.

As the tour came to an end, Parker was gifted Severna Park Falcon spirit wear. At McKenna’s request, he blessed the school.

Parker wanted to extend a personal invitation to former classmates, friends and neighbors to join him for Easter Sunday Mass on April 20 at 9:00am, asking that they take a moment to say hello and catch up with “one of the Parker boys” or the classmate “who became bishop.”