THE CHURCH: In 1902, the Redemptorist priests out of St. Mary's in Annapolis decided to start a new parish in Millersville. The parish was first known as St. Joseph's, then St. Mary's, but each of those names was already given to other parishes in the county. The church was finally dedicated as Our Lady of the Fields, which is quite fitting and a point of pride to its senior pastor, the Rev. G. Eugene Nickol, known to his parishioners as Father Gene.

"We live up to our name," he said. "We are a church in the field. We're not overly large. We don't have all the urban blight. We're not our lady of suburban sprawl; we are true to our...