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Resurrection Parish was founded in 1969 by Bishop Thomas Mardaga. In effort to comply with Vatican II directives, the parish was able to offer alternatives to those who wanted them. The parish was set up in a way previously unheard of. There would be no geographical boundaries! People more comfortable with the traditional churches could remain in their existing parishes. Others could comefrom the entire region (northern Delaware as well as nearbyPennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey). Our founding pastor, Father Frank Herron, was enough of a visionary to lead the way. Along with Liturgies in the vernacular (Masses in English) and guitar music in place of organ, Fr. Herron was pleased to guide the new church in its way of outreach committment - service to the community at large as well as service to our own members. This emphasis was so strong that there was no attempt at all to begin with a building. To us, the "church" referred to the community of believers, the people, the original connotation dating back to the Greeks and Romans. We would be, for several years, "a church without having a building to put it in." On Sundays for the first two years, we would rent a local grade school, Shue School, which ultimately affectionally became dubbed "St. Shue." For the subsequent twelve years, we rented the auditorium of St. Mark's High School.

One way Fr. Herron developed the community, communication, spirit within the parish was to offer coffee and donuts after the Masses.This was quite effective .... people actually stayed and mingled instead of breaking out into the parking lot! The DonutCounter continues to this day and is considered to be one of our PARISH FAMILY LIFE ministries. Many people still stay after theMasses, often long enough to meet others coming in to the following Mass!! Volunteers pick up and serve the donuts, coffee, tea, milk, orange juice and apple juice. As often as practical, the Donut Counter is served by Pastoral Council members as a way to meet and communicate with other parishioners.

Fr. Herron also convinced a local apartment complex ("GardenQuarter Apartments") to break out an extra exterior doorway betweent wo adjacent apartments for our parish chapel and office during these first fourteen years. His rectory "pad" was on the second floor just above the office area. He never expected the parish never to have a building, in fact he envisioned a place that might even have a swimming pool and a pool table where people could unwind and unburden themselves in a relaxed atmosphere. At the first parish picnic,someone noticed, "Look! There's Fr. Herron wearing shorts!" This feeling of true community, belonging by choice rather than necessityof geographical boundaries has been of utmost strength when extending outreach and survival in difficult times (such as losing dedicated parishioners to surrounding parishes who needed to send their children to parochial schools but Resurrection didn't have one).