With the transfer of Reverend Craig, Reverend Michael J. King became St. Joseph’s sixth Archdiocesan pastor. Father King (soon became Father Mike) came with a lot of enthusiasm and energy for his new parish. Like Father Sweeney he was interested in getting the parishioners involve in parish upkeep and beautification.
One of the first projects undertaken was the clean up and landscaping of the front of the church. With the help of both men and women parishioners, old shrubs were removed and new plants/trees were planted.
One of the projects Father Mike undertook was the changing of the outer doors of the church. Originally the doors were red but the church soon had glass doors to go with the new look of the entrance to our place of worship. Many of the directional signs you see in and outside of St. Joseph was installed at the request of Father Mike (so we would always know where we were). Father Mike shared his dream of a new and permanent baptismal font to the parishioners. He, Virginia Brust and Gloria Newman traveled to Williamsburg, VA to look at some of the baptismal fonts in a couple of catholic churches there. They liked the fonts they saw and came back to the parish community with presentations. Preparations were made to obtain the baptismal font through several donations from parishioners. Father Mike explained about the baptismal font that will be installed. In keeping with church tradition, the new font will be in the shape of a large cross with heated water that flows He said “the font will be located near the inside entrance to the church as a way of helping us to welcome new members into our Catholic community here at St. Joseph as well as to help us who are already baptized to recall our own baptism and our entrance into the Body of Christ. “