PARISH HISTORY

The Catholic presence in Morgan County, Alabama began in 1871 when St. Ann parish was established as a mission church of Our Lady of the Shoals Parish in Tuscumbia, Alabama. It took 20 years before the new parish was able to erect a church building on Vine Street in Decatur.

As the parish and Morgan County grew, the parish built a new church on Johnson Street and Fourth Avenue. This building was completed in 1906. Later in the century, a mission church was established in Hartselle, Holy Family. This community quickly grew and was able to build a parish hall and classrooms in 1993.

In 1998, Bishop Foley decided to combine these two parishes to better server Catholics in Morgan County and formed Annunciation of the Lord parish. The land on which our current campus is built was purchased in 2000, and the first Mass was offered in the current space in 2003.

At every stage of the changes in buildings and locations, faithful Catholic families have stepped up, made sacrifices, and provided for the needs for their generation as well as generations to come. We owe these families a debt of great gratitude.

The current facilities include a Catholic school, office, and meeting spaces, as well as multi-purpose room which we currently use to hold Mass. Because the actual church building is the costliest of the construction efforts, it was decided to postpone that until the current buildings were paid for. The multipurpose room was set up so that we could hold Mass temporarily until the church building could be constructed. Although the room is not designed for this purpose, the planners did their best to make the space as suitable as possible for the noble and eternal work that takes place in this space - the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. We are able to hold Mass, conduct the work of running a parish, educate our children in St. Ann’s School and in religious education classes because of the hard work, effort, and sacrifice of many people - some we may never know this side of heaven.