PHOTO BY JONAS LEON RIOS
Jonas Leon Rios
Prairie Reporter
Web Editor’s Note: Click here for more pics of the church!
Pastor Harold L. Waldow exclaimed, “Be Not Afraid,” on Feb. 26, 2007, when he stood alongside hundreds of parish members and others who gathered to display continued strength and support to a church that stood no more.
Several hours before Pastor Waldow voiced those very optimistic words, a homeless woman sought refuge inside the church for warmth. After starting a fire with a lamp, she accidentally set a piece of furniture on fire. St. Mary’s then became engulfed in flames that cold night.
By the time firemen arrived onto the scene, the fire had already devastated the church.
For two and a half years, members gathered in the church’s gymnasium for worship services. The gymnasium, located inside the activity center, was built in 2002.
“Our gymnasium is as nice as a gymnasium could be, but it was still banquet chairs and a gymnasium floor,” Jeannine Bellinghausen, church membership coordinator, said.
St. Mary’s Catholic Church was dedicated on Feb. 1, 1981, and lasted a short life of 26 years. However, new life came to St. Mary’s on Sept. 11, 2009.
“We were very happy to be back in a church building again; it feels like home,” Bellinghausen said. “Support (before and after the fire) has always been active and supported by Parishioners.”
A dedication plaque with the words, “Be Not Afraid,” now greets members and visitors as they walk into the south entrance of a new resurrected church.
To celebrate the new church, activities were scheduled every night last week, including an open house. Members were stationed around the church for inquiries of certain items – old and new, and their significance; several items survived the fire and were repurposed and reused for the new church. Different Catholic Church choirs also came to dedicate songs. Youth praise and worship along with musicians hosted a part of last week’s activities.
PHOTO BY JONAS LEON RIOS
All activities lead up to Friday’s successful, standing room only, dedication consecration, which lasted a couple of hours
The new St. Mary’s Church has more seating, more architectural detail and state of the art technology.
The history of St. Mary’s began with a church that was built by sisters (nuns) in 1913. Cathedral Hall was located downtown in a gymnasium, and the sisters used to live in what are now the church’s current offices. Mass was then held in a chapel at the housing unit; it was a mission church to the cathedral. It later became a parish itself in the early 1950’s. A barracks church, from an air force base, was also moved to the parish during that same decade. In the 1970’s the church was torn down to make way for the church dedicated in February of 1981, which was the church that burned down.
According to the saying, “God doesn’t close one door without opening another,” cannot hold any more true to the story of St. Mary’s.
Today, St. Mary’s continues to be a place of education, worship and definitely a place with history.