Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Abandoned Churches Reborn - just maybe.

I feel like we are living in the calm before the storm. Time is clicking away as we get closer and closer to the beginning of Religious Ed classes starting up again and I find myself procrastinating on pulling together lesson plans and getting myself organized.

This year we have several parents that will be teaching classes in their homes which will really help us in Cargill Creek. Fresh Creek has less students so Ginni and I will still be doing all the classes there (as well as Confirmation Classes in both places).

RCIA starts up again tomorrow night after taking a summer break. We have two people who will be welcomed into the church on Easter and a few more still considering whether they want to start the program or not.

One piece of news you may find interesting is that this week we will be going north again to have Sunday services with the Catholics in Mastic Point. There used to be a Catholic Church up north but years ago, when Grand Bahamas was being developed, there was an exodus of people from Andros who left Mastic Point for the work. Eventually the Catholic Church was closed down and it was reclaimed by termites and the bush. Lately, however, we have heard from several families that they've moved back and there are a group of people willing to meet again - so we have made arrangements to have services in the elementary school. If we can really grow a community up there - who knows what might happen. The Archdiocese still owns the land and I actually found it and plunged into the overgrown vines and branches to find the foundation. If we ever did build a church there it would be a brand new building from the ground up. That's a long way off, right now we'll be going north to do a 4PM Sunday afternoon service and see what kind of turn out we have.

One interesting component of this part of Andros is that it has become an area for undocumented Haitian families to settle. The word is that there are many people without visas or any documentation there and, coming from Haiti, they are Catholic. Being able to make the Church a reality in the lives of these people again has been gnawing at me for months so I am thrilled to actually be going up there again. It will be a challenge to find them, and an even bigger one for them to take the risk of coming to a meeting for church where they could be exposed. This is something that I've been praying about for some time and I ask you to bring it to prayer as well.

There are a few Catholic churches on Andros like the one in Mastic Point that have been abandoned over the years. This is St. Gabriel's churh in Calabash Bay, actually not too far from where we live in Fresh Creek. Several years ago its parishioners were merged into St. John Chrysostom where we live and the building boarded up. Occasionally I drive by and find the doors broken open again like in this pic and I pull over and re-secure the building.


A little over a year ago, before we moved here, a homeless man had broken in and took up residence, smashing all the windows and breaking in the doors. They are all boarded up now but I've been stopping by every now and then and cleaning it up a bit at a time. We are a long way from re-opening it but with some work it might be able to be used for classes or prayer services. If I could pull that off it would be a major sign to the locals that the Catholic church is back and instead of closing up churches and consolidating we are re-opening them and expanding.

Churches that have been closed down here tend to fall into disrepair quickly. Termites are present everywhere and an old building like this, with dry wood, not being maintained that well tend to collapse in upon themselves unless some maintenance is done.

I have a bit of an emotional attachment to St. Gabriel's as well. The first priest to serve on Andros was Fr. Gabriel Roerig, OSB. He spent his entire life serving the people of the island (before there were roads and electricity and running water - actually a very hard life). When a church was built in Calabash Bay I think the Bishop named it St. Gabriel to recognize the work he had done. I know the patron of this church is the Archangel Gabriel but the more I learn about Fr. Gabriel I think a case could be made for his canonization and I like to think he's looking out for this church. Who knows with his help one day this church may be back in business full time.

Speaking of restoring things that used to be here and now are not - last Sunday I led an Altar Server Commissioning. After a few weeks of training 4 boys, two from Fresh Creek and two from Cargill Creek, were commissioned as altar servers. When Ginni and I went to the States this summer we purchased some altar server vestments and all 4 boys seem to be really excited about this ministry. Usually their roles are pretty simple when I am leading Eucharistic Services for 6 weeks before a priest is sent. We will see how well they do when we have a priest and they serve at a full Mass. If this catches on - who knows, we might even have girls who want to join their ranks.

Enough for now, I really should sit down and look through CCD books and begin putting together lesson plans. Till next time:
Peace.