St. Lawrence began in 1956 with a storefront and a promise. Our first school met in a rented store in North Miami Beach; Mass was celebrated in the same portable building where children learned during the week. Within a year we had outgrown every room we borrowed — by 1957, Sunday Mass filled the junior-high auditorium. Two years later, this young parish family built its own church, school, and convent.
We have always believed a parish is measured by its neighbors. In 1969 — our thirteenth year — the parish sold a corner of its land to the Jewish congregation that built Temple Sinai of North Dade, and the two communities have counted on each other ever since. In 1986 we renewed our church, turning the altar to face the people — the way this parish has always lived: face to face.
Today the same corner of North Miami Beach holds our church, our school, and our child care center — three ministries, one family of faith, led by our pastor, Rev. Fr. Cletus O. Omode.