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December 27, 2011 – Seeing Faces of Mission in Alaska on a Journey Home
Many cultures, miles of territory, extreme weather and terrain.
That was the Alaska that greeted Father Andrew Small, OMI on his first mission visit as National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, which ended with his journey home in the early morning hours of December 27. But what he found as well in the Diocese of Fairbanks – the only U.S. diocese that remains dependent on support from the Pontifical Mission Societies – was a people filled with a vibrant faith, and priests, religious and laity hard at work and ready, despite the difficulties, to bring the “Good News” of the Light of the world, Jesus, born at Christmas, to waiting hearts.
Take Sister Dorothy Giloley, SSJ, once a schoolteacher and director of religious education in the inner city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For the past 10 years, Sister Dorothy has been a missionary in Alaska, working mostly in religious education. Several years ago, she offered reflections on her service to The Alaskan Shepherd. “The Yup’ik people here really know what is most important in life,” she said. “Their faith, their culture, and their families are what sustain them. God walks among the Yup’ik people who treasure their Catholic heritage and live their faith each day.”
Her prayer, Sister Dorothy will tell you, remains the same today as expressed during that interview more than a half dozen years ago – “a prayer for more priests, Brothers, Sisters, and lay ministers to join us in this wonderful ministry, for more native deacons and dedicated laity as well.” “Amen,” Father Andrew offered to that prayer, having seen firsthand what that missionary outreach accomplishes – and how great the needs remain.
That same prayer of the Lord Himself – “pray the Lord of the harvest send out laborers” (Matthew 9:38) – was answered with a hearty, “This laborer has reported for duty!” by Father Fred Bayler, now pastor of Immaculate Conception in Fairbanks, and by so many other missionary priests going back decades. (In fact, Father Andrew offered his own prayer of gratitude that the first Catholic missionary priest to enter Alaska was a member of his own Religious Community, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Father Jean Séguin, coming from Canada, spent a winter (1862-63) at Fort Yukon.)
While there are some 20 priests and 15 Sisters serving the Fairbanks Diocese – which is about two-thirds of the state of Alaska – there are many more laity, some 1,000, who are leaders in key ministries and volunteers. Father Andrew was blessed to share Christmas dinner at the home of one such lay person, Teresa Usibelli, development associate for the diocese, and her family. He even stayed at the family home, and helped prepare breakfast the next morning, with assistance from Sister Dorothy, who stayed and celebrated with the Usibelli family as well.
On this mission visit, Father Andrew learned of the missionary history of Immaculate Conception parish in Fairbanks – its connection to gold rush days of the past and its outreach in the present day to those most in need in that community. He even got to help with the parish’s annual Christmas brunch for the homeless. On a visit to St. Theresa Church in Nenana he learned about the “rail belt” – a string of Catholic parishes that stretches 110 miles parallel to the Alaska railroad, from Nenana to Cantwell. A priest assigned to the “rail belt” circuit becomes a “missionary on wheels” – traveling extensively to serve the six communities of faithful.
On this mission visit, Father Andrew treasured his time with students and families at St. Mark’s University parish, also in Fairbanks, grateful to share a pot luck supper there and thankful that his presence enabled pastor Father Sean Thompson to journey some 300 miles west to Nulato, to celebrate Christmas Mass for the small faith community there – their first such celebration in a decade. He valued his well his time with Bishop Donald Kettler of Fairbanks, hearing of the greatest needs for his diocese, including support for diocesan youth ministry programs, and for residences for Sisters in ministry in the region of remote Eskimo villages between the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers.
On this mission visit, Father Andrew gave thanks for the privilege we share to be partners with missionaries and mission churches around the world. How wonderful to know that our prayers support the work of Father Chuck Peterson, SJ and Susan McCarthy at Immaculate Conception at Bethel, and Father Robert Fath at St. Nicholas parish in North Pole. How grateful to be able to provide, through the Pontifical Mission Societies, support to the Diocese of Fairbanks and other mission dioceses around the world for service to body and soul.
Above all on this mission visit, Father Andrew celebrated our unity in faith in this “one family in mission”! It was the ever-present Light in all darkness that characterized Alaska at this time of year. It was reminiscent of the same Light that pierced the darkness of Bethlehem more than two millennia ago, a Light heralded by the angels and proclaimed by the shepherds that first Christmas – and celebrated by Father Andrew with our mission family in Alaska at Christmas 2011.
For more pictures from Father Andrew’s complete mission visit to Alaska, visit our Facebook page.
December 25, 2011 – A Historic Church For Christmas
Gold rush. In 1902, an Italian prospector discovered gold 12 miles from an established trading post that would come to be called the city of Fairbanks. In 1904, pioneer Jesuit missionary, Father Francis Monroe, was sent to build a church for the community and establish missionary outreach to the local people there. Father Francis raised money for the church by going camp to camp, asking for donations. He also asked prospectors to help with building. Father Francis celebrated the first Mass in that church – named Immaculate Conception – on November 1, 1904. After that, he built a much-needed hospital for the area. While accomplishing his building projects and ministering to miners and their families, Father Francis also managed to recruit Sisters to staff the hospital.
Originally on the corner of First Avenue and Dunkel Street in Fairbanks, Immaculate Conception needed to be moved, Father Francis felt, better placed next to St. Joseph’s Hospital. So, in the winter of 1911, when the Chena River had ice thick enough, Father Francis hired a team of horses and men to move the church building. The crew, using skids, slid the church building across the ice to its new location on north bank of the Chena River where Immaculate Conception Church stands to this day.
Welcoming National Director Father Andrew Small, OMI to this historic church on Christmas Day was pastor Father Frederick Bayler. At age 55, he came to the priesthood with vast experiences of a previous life – including service as a Sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps. As a lay person, he had also been a parish lector, RCIA catechist and annulment counselor. He worked within the National Park Service, including at Alaska’s Denali National Park. During the course of those many careers, Father Bayler questioned whether he was on his “true” path. He felt particularly called to serve the people of God on a more personal level, according to an article in The Alaskan Shepherd, speaking with Bishop Kettler about the priesthood during his time in Alaska. In the end, Bishop Kettler sponsored his studies for the priesthood at Blessed John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts – with help from the Pontifical Mission Societies – and happily ordained him a priest for Alaska in June 2009.
Father Andrew concelebrated Christmas Day Mass with Father Bayler – and then helped with the parish’s annual “Christmas Brunch” for the homeless and those in need. “I am filled with such joy when deliveries come into the kitchen,” wrote parishioner Cindy Fields, a leader in this parish ministry, in an online message, speaking of all the donations that arrived for that meal – including milk, eggs, bread, beautiful hams, tangerines – and the other contributions for the “gift bags.”
Fields also thanked all those who helped cook and serve. And on Christmas Day 2011, a server included Father Andrew himself, who was enjoying Christmas far from home but with family nonetheless – all of us part of “one family in mission”!
For more pictures from Father Andrew’s continuing mission visit to Alaska, visit our Facebook page.
Next – Reflecting on the “faces” of mission in Alaska before journeying home.
December 24, 2011 – Light in the Darkness
“We know about darkness here in the far north, especially at this time of year,” wrote Bishop Donald Kettler in his 10th Christmas message as bishop of Fairbanks. Recalling the words of St. John’s Gospel read at the Mass for Christmas Day – “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” – he asked Catholics here to be that light for others “by sharing Christ’s love with family and friends, with the poor, the sick or those in despair.” That, he said, is how the light of Christ shall overcome the darkness.
Bishop Kettler gathered with Catholics at Sacred Heart Cathedral for Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Joining him this year was National Director Father Andrew Small, OMI, and Father Clint Landry, ordained just this past June in the very same cathedral at the age of 54. When asked by The Alaskan Shepherd about his missionary service in Alaska, Father Landry, a Louisiana native, responded: “I feel very much at home in Alaska. The dramatic climate, the beauty, and the vastness of the landscape, the distance one has to travel to reach the people of northern Alaska—it only supports my desire for God even more.”
Father Landry cited the deep spirituality of the Alaskan people in that interview – something Father Andrew felt blessed to experience firsthand. “My encounters here with brothers and sisters in mission – those serving and those responding in faith – have reinforced the heart of our mission vocation – the commandment to love,” Father Andrew said. “Bishop Kettler, the priests, religious and laity I have met on this journey in Alaska pour forth their love – the love of the Lord Himself – into the community, extending themselves to reach those farthest away in this vast territory, to the vulnerable, the poor, those in great need.
“Yes, the darkness here is not victorious, but illumined by the great light of faith,” he concluded.
For more pictures from Father Andrew’s continuing mission visit to Alaska, visit our Facebook page.
Next – Christmas Day at a historic Alaskan parish.
December 24, 2011 – Father Andrew’s Christmas Gift
A parish within a school. That’s St. Mark’s University parish in Fairbanks, Alaska. And on Christmas Eve afternoon that means Mass and a pot luck supper.
This year, some 100 came for both, welcoming National Director Father Andrew Small, OMI as celebrant and homilist. There are regular Sunday Masses here in an auditorium of a campus building. Outreach includes student retreats, and a weekly gathering for “fun, faith and fellowship.”
Delighted to be with this part of our Alaskan mission family – some university students, some families in the area – Father Andrew was even more pleased when he discovered another consequence of his presence. With Father Andrew at St. Mark’s, Father Sean Thompson, who regularly serves this parish community, could journey west to Nulato, to Our Lady of the Snows, celebrating Christmas Mass there for the first time in a decade.
“That’s gift all around,” Father Andrew said.
For more pictures from Father Andrew’s continuing mission visit to Alaska, visit our Facebook page.
Next – Midnight Mass.
December 23, 2011 – North Pole, Alaska
Where best to be two days before Christmas? The North Pole, of course.
For Father Andrew Small, OMI, National Director, continuing his mission visit to Alaska, it was the city of the same name in that U.S. state.
Population increased greatly in the North Pole area especially during the late 1960s and 1970s, mostly with an influx of military families in the area. But even before a permanent church was established there – appropriately named St. Nicholas – missionaries came to the area, both priests and religious, to teach about the faith, to celebrate Mass for the people, and to serve the immediate needs of those in the area. The current church building was dedicated in 1978. Father Robert Fath is pastor here – his own vocation story linked to the Pontifical Mission Societies as his seminary formation was supported by donations to the Society of St. Peter Apostle.
After that parish visit, Father Andrew, accompanied by Teresa Usibelli, Development Associate in the Diocese of Fairbanks, stopped in at Christmas in Ice. Located near St. Nicholas and next door to Santa Claus House, this ice park features Christmas-themed ice art sculptures by local and international carvers. This year’s theme, “Where the Spirit of Christmas Lives Year ‘Round.” Father Andrew himself got to try his hand at some ice sculpting – as this video confirms!
Next – Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Masses and parish visits, and Father Andrew’s Christmas “gift” to the Catholic community at Nulato, Alaska.
December 21, 2011 – Bethel, Alaska
Enaa neenyo! Quyana tailuci! Qaimarutin!
Those are words for welcome in Koyukon Athabascan, Central Yup'ik and Inupiaq, three local languages in Alaska. After a day of travel on December 20 – leaving at 7 a.m. EST from New York and not arriving until 6:30 p.m. Alaska Time (which would be 10:30 p.m. EST) – Father Andrew Small, OMI, National Director, was welcomed by mission family in Bethel, a coastal city in Southwest Alaska.
The Yup’ik people of this area had welcomed the first missionaries in 1885. A permanent mission station was established here only in the early 1940s, and a Catholic church built in 1943. Missionary priests traveled by dogsled to mission stations scattered throughout the vast area.
Immaculate Conception in Bethel was home for Father Andrew as his visit began. Susan Murphy is the lay parish administrator at Immaculate Conception, part Yup’ik herself; Father Charles “Chuck” Peterson, SJ is pastor. Father Chuck has been a missionary in Alaska since the early 1970s, serving in villages with 10 Catholics and now in Bethel, with 300 Catholic households. Like many parishes in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta area of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Immaculate Conception is served on a rotating schedule by ministry teams which may include priests, deacons, religious and trained lay staff members. Celebrations of the Word with Holy Communion may replace Sunday Mass when a priest is unavailable, a common occurrence – helping visitors recall the true missionary character of this part of our own United States.
In the days before Christmas, it was time to decorate at Immaculate Conception – and Father Andrew pitched in. But the duties of being “Santa” at a pre-Christmas parish celebration fell to pastor, Father Chuck.
On December 22, 2011, Father Andrew made his way back to Fairbanks – another day of travel, so common in getting around the vast diocese. Next stop: North Pole – Alaska, that is!
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