Our 2nd big fire on Andros!

Well my friends, if you remember, last year (see post for May 8, 2009) we had a huge fire in Fresh Creek where a huge building burnt to the ground. There is no fire department on the island other than the US Navy, and their big truck won't fit over the bridge.

Well we had another, this time it was the Anglican church. The Anglican community here in Fresh Creek meets on Sun evening. They have 1 priest covering 6 churches up and down the east coast of Andros so starting at 7AM and going non stop till 7PM he is a busy guy and Fresh Creek gets the Sunday evening service.

Anyway, they have their service at 7, it goes till about 830, and everyone goes home. By that time I had already done my 4th liturgy of the weekend myself and had crashed. Ginni and I are watching TV when, about 10, the power goes out. This is not uncommon so we decide to call it a night and go to bed.

Well the next morning I get a call from someone on the Navy base saying she'd just seen an email saying that their Fire Department was called out during the night and St. Michael's Catholic Church had burned to the ground. Well there is no St. Michael's so she knew it was wrong but when she called the Fire Dept she was told the white church on the water had burned - well that describes us, and St. Stephen's, the Anglican Church. So when I answered the phone she was sooooooo relieved. I jumped in the van and rode down to St. Stephen's and sure enough, just 4 walls standing, the rest was a smoldering hulk.

Our phone is our fax machine, so when the power went out we lost phones. Having gone to bed we didn't even know the activity that was going on less than a mile away, while parishioners were trying to call us to let us know.

I've spoken to the minister and they are fully insured and will rebuild, until then they're merging the Fresh Creek community with their Calabash Bay community in the next town, but it is a terrible loss.

Suffice it to say, we would REALLY like to see the Bahamian government get a fire department off the ground for the family islands like Andros - time will tell, but don't hold your breath. Until then I am keeping our fire extinguishers fully charged, and I bought two 100' garden hoses. It's not much but its something

Till next time

Summer time Summer time Sum Sum Summer time

Well my friends, CCD is over for the summer and our ministry here now takes on a whole new look and feel. We have time to read, time to plan, time to visit parishioners, our T I M E is our own once again, Alleluia! For example, I just read Sydney Poiter's autobiography 'The Measure of a Man" (a native Bahamian by the way) a really great read with wonderful insights on growing up on Cat Island and how the values his Bahamian parents helped him in making some difficult life choices.

With that said, the list of things we want to do this summer is a long one.

Years ago a small church in Calabash Bay was closed and we'd like to restore that building as a Parish Center. St. Gabriels has been boarded up for years - it would be a big plus to the town if we could restore it AND a place we could set up to do all our CCD classes in next year, as well as hold parish meetings.

We took this pictures several years ago before we moved here permanently. Between then and now a homeless man broke into the church and smashed all 13 windows which are now covered with plywood. Termites are doing their thing and it will be a ton of work. BUT if we can pull it off we'd have tables and chairs for the kids (rather than them sitting on the church floor and using the pew seats as desks).

The building is on the bus route from the High School, so we could do 1 class for all our High School kids together, rather than 1 at Fresh Creek and another at Cargill Creek.

Throw in having a place for social gatherings, parish council meetings, etc. and you can see why this is a priority for us this summer.

Another possible summer job will be a new church up North in Mastic Point. Over 20 years ago the Catholic Church up north was closed when a major building effort was started on Grand Bahamas island and many North Andros Catholics left for work on Grand Bahamas. Well, they are moving back, and a large Haitian population has also sprung up on North Andros. Unfortunately there is no Catholic presence on North Andros so many have joined the Anglican, Methodist or Baptist Churches.

So we started making trips up north and have been "holding church" in the local primary school. After about 6 months of this, with attendance ranging from 3 to 15, we spoke with the Archbishop who gave us permission to investigate putting up 'a simple structure' to guage the demand. Clearly, while meeting in the primary school gives us some sense of the need, having our own place to meet will do alot to grow the Catholic community up there.

Well, since we still own the land I crawled through the bush to find the remains of St. Savior Catholic Church. You can't see any evidence it exists from the street, but once you plow through the vines, dodge the poison wood trees (yes, poison wood - imagine an entire tree where everything, bark, leaves, everything, acts like poison ivy), and keep going through all sorts of brush, eventually you come upon this:



Yup this is all that remains of St. Savior Catholic Church. So we start thinking about what our options are when we discover that the AUTEC Navy base here on Andros is upgrading some of the resident's homes from 60' trailers to permanent structures. The trailers have all seen better days and are destined for demolition - or were, until we had the bright idea that if we could get permission, we could probably convert one of them into a chapel. The Commander has given the idea his blessing, and so has the Director of Base Housing. Now the Navy has to bless it for this to become a reality. THEN we need to get the blessing of the Bahamian government, look into whether we pay duty on 'importing' the trailer from AUTEC soil to Bahamian soil, and figure out how we get it from AUTEC to Mastic Point. Not to mention all the other details like clearing the site, preparing it for a trailer, hooking up utilities, . . .

There is still alot to do on this one. How do you get a 60'x14' trailer from one end of the island to another? How do you get a 14' wide trialer over 2 bridges only 12' wide? Does ANYBODY have a 60' flatbed to move this thing? Not to mention that the roads are 'challenging' to say the least. There are a ton of issues we'd need to resolve so while the trailer idea is still in play, so is building a simple building (although no building is simple once you start thinking about septic systems on an island made of rock).

The summer should be interesting. It won't all be work however. One thing we're getting ready to look into is scuba diving. Think about it, we're living on the 3rd larges barrier reef in the world - why not? Well there is the shark issue, and drowning is another one, but exploring the reefs does have its appeal.

Throw in planning next year's CCD classes, soliciting our next class of RCIA candidates, and possibly putting together a weekend Marriage Seminar for the Bahamians - and we've filled up the summer 'free time' rather nicely, don't you think.

Keep us in your prayers - if we can get half of this done it'll be a great summer.
Till next time

Confirmation - and a whole lot more!

Hello Again

Well I promised in my last post that I would tell you about Confirmation so here it is - and a bit more.

Archbishop Pinder flew in on Wednesday, May 12 and we had some time alone to talk about ministry and enjoy the breeze off the ocean on the porch. After dinner we loaded up the van, met some folks from Man O'War Sound who wanted a ride, picked up another from AUTEC and off we went to Cargill Creek for Confirmation. We had planned to have Confession at 7 and Confirmation at 7:30, which is exactly what happened, but it wasn't easy.

If you remember from prior blog entries, on Palm Sunday we had a toilet flood the church in Cargill Creek and we were trying to rip out the old soiled rugs and replace them with tile (using insurance money) and get this done in time for the Archbishop's visit. Well the morning of his arrival Gin and I were down there mopping the floor and putting everything in order after the workers had finished the installation the prior night (is that cutting it TOO close?).

Suffice it to say the church looks magnificent! People turned out from AUTEC, St. John Chrysostom in Fresh Creek, and most of the surrounding towns to see the first Confirmation on Andros in several years. Our class this year was made up of 6 students. Two had never been baptized so they recieved the sacraments on the Easter Vigil. Here is a pic of me with the Archbishop, and the remaining 4 after they were confirmed.

On another note, in prior blogs I have told you about the family with the 8 grandchildren living with 'grammie'. Well we finally got the pics of the baptism of all 8 grandchildren a few weeks ago. Between the flu, absent god-parents, missing parents, and a variety of other logistical issues pulling this off was much harder than it seems it should be - but finally we were able to make it happen. This first pic is of us all gathered around the font. Right before I began using my conche shell to start pouring.

Here's the baby of the family, being held by her Dad - the only Dad of the eight kids who was there for the Baptism

(Does that red hair in the foreground look familiar to any of you?)

Here's one of the girls leaning forward over the font

Here's another, one of the boys this time.

Enough already - you get the idea. Suffice it to say I was thrilled to finally have this entire family baptized.

Finally - an option in the Baptism Rite is the blessing of the lips and ears. That they may hear God's word and proclaim it. Ginni got this on video so lets see if I can get it to load.

More Easter info - Confirmation is next

Its hard to believe its been 6 weeks since Easter already - time flies.

During that time we have had a wonderful visit by friends of ours from MA who now live in VA. Company is always welcome, especially when they are old friends. There is an old ryme "Make new friends, and keep the old, one is silver and the other one is gold". Well it is absolutely true.

Frank and Ellen have known us for a L O N G time and it was a joy to see them again.

Frank and I have always loved fishing and one of our RCIA candidates (I guess I should start calling him a new Catholic now) took us out on his boat. It was a rough day and inevitably we all caught fish but most we returned to the sea.

This is a MARGATE and cooked up very tender.

We have had a few Easter pics given to us from other folks with cameras. This is at the blessing of the fire and you can tell by the fire that the wind was b l o w i n g!

Here is one of me trying to get the Easter Candle into the church without the wind blowing it out or me burning my hand - I was able to do both! Then I had to sing the Exultet - fortunately there were no pictures or recordings of that!

The candle was donated to us by our parish back in Norwood MA. Although it already has had a year's service it is MUCH better than anything we could have gotten here. Thanks St. Tim's!

This is one of the Bahamians we welcomed into the Church during the Easter Vigil. I am at the ready with the chrism as Fr. Frank Herrmann prepares to confirm him.

After Easter is the annual Clergy Retreat. Priests and Deacons go on this retreat together and it was a great time to finally rest after the Easter crunch and wallow in the Lord's presence. It was bitter sweet in that, while the retreat was great, one of the Sacred Hearts fathers who was a great support for us here, retired. The retreat was his last Bahamian event and after 39 years in the Bahamas he will be sorely missed.

Before he left he shipped me some of his books. I took one of them on retreat, a meditation on the Sacred Heart by Bernard Haring. The retreat provided lots of spare time and the book was the highpoint of my retreat, once more I learned about the awesome, overwhelming love of God in a new way.

Another high point of the retreat was my discovery of the graves of the Benedictines who have served on the islands. One of them, Fr. Gabriel Roerig OSB, was the first priest to evangelize the remote 'family islands'. The island he made his home was Andros, my island. He arrived here with his books, and his tools, and basically built his church, built his house, and built the faith of the Bahamian people here into a thriving, living church. When I read about his life I am absolutely blown away with what he accomplished, having so little to work with. But all things are possible with God and, with God, Fr. Gabriel did amazing things. Finding his gravesite was significant for me and I spent one afternoon just praying by the gravesite.

Our next hurdle is Confirmation. After almost 2 years here we have 6 that are of age for Confirmation. 2 had never been baptized so they recieved baptism, eucharist, and confirmation at the Easter Vigil. The remaining 4 will be confirmed on WED night, the Vigil of the Ascension. St. Timothy's usually has Confirmation on the Ascension so I feel a certain kin-ship with the Archbishop coming tomorrow for this blessed event. But that is the topic for the next post.

I should tell you one more tale of life on Andros. Palm Sunday we arrived at the Church in Cargill Creek to find the toilet had overflowed and ran all night. This soaked the rugs in the Sacristy and the Church. In this climate the mold and mildew wasn't far behind. So I put in an insurance claim and we get through Palm Sunday. During Holy Week there is a part of the Good Friday liturgy when the celebrant lies prostrate before the altar (We did a solomn bow so as to avoid the rug).

Eventually the Archdiocese told me the claim was approved, I ask if I can start work and they so go for it. So -- I go buy $2000 worth of tile, hire a mason, and off we go. Well the day the tile arrives at the dock, I meet it with a truck and we take it to Cargill Creek, where the Church has no power. While the trucker unloads the tile I discover that in the circuit breaker box we'd had a fire and all the wires were melted. How the Church didn't burn down is God's doing. So now I need to find an electrician. So I drive back to Fresh Creek and find an electrician willing to come look at it. Then we head off back to Cargill Creek. He sees it and says "O Deacon, dis is bahd". I explained I had a mason arriving in a few hours to start work and he was going to need electricity and he does his best to jury-rig a fix, but says its a patch job and he'll have to come back - fine with me.

Anyway he fixes it just as the mason arrives. Work starts and the Archdiocese calls to tell me that they had changed insurance companies and the approval from the 1st company was invalid since the change had happened prior to the flood and the 2nd insurance company would now need to give its approval. At this point its too late to turn back so I tell them to go get the approval.

While I am waiting for that the work continues and, wonder of wonders, the inside of Christ the King now looks fantastic with a new tile floor - and it was done in time for Sunday services! Now he's working on the Sacristy and I'm sure it'll be great. All I need now is for the insurance money to come in so I can replace what I've already spent.

Next time I must tell you about Confirmation and 'having Church' alongside a caggage field with some migrant Haitians I discovered up north. Run Run Run

Till next time

Easter on Andros!

He has risen! Easter has finally arrived, Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia!
Welcome to Easter at St. John Chrysostom in Fresh Creek! Doesn't our Easter Altar look grand!

Our Paschal Candle here is courtesy of our parish back in the US - thanks St. Tim's!

We were blessed to have 4 people join the Church this year as adults. Two are from Cargill Creek and were baptized. One is from the AUTEC base and another worships with us here at St. John Chrysostom. The later two were as recieved into the Catholic Church recieving Confirmation and the Eucharist.

With those coming from Cargill Creek, and not having transportation, my Easter Vigil started with a drive to Cargill Creek to pick them up, with their family, friends, and God-parents.

After the drive there and back I threw on my vestments and went outside to face my first of several anxious moments - the lighting of the bonfire for the beginning of the Easter Vigil liturgy. Using dried palm branches for kindling and wood from old shipping pallets, we soon had a roaring fire. Now my next anxious moment, lighting the Paschal Candle in a stiff breeze. After 3 attempts God smiled on us and the Paschal Candle was lit for the entrance procession. I sang "Christ Our Light" and the people responded, singing "Thanks be to God", as they lit their individual candles from mine and the church went from darkness to light as the fire spread.

My next anxious moment (do you see a pattern here) was my singing the Exultet. This 5 minute solo is the role of the Deacon but having had so many wonderfully talented music directors I have never had to sing it. Well, now it was my turn and somehow I got through it.

As I mentioned, a major highlight of the Easter Vigil was our being able to welcome 4 people into the Catholic Church. This first pic is the first being baptized, while the second waits her turn.

She didn't have to wait long. The challenge for me was baptizing her without spoiling her hair or her makeup too much. Trust me, she got wet.

When I saw this pic I got a kick out of her God-mother. She is making sure she doesn't miss a thing.

Confirmation followed and with 4 candidates, thier sponsors and God-parents, a Deacon and Fr. Frank Herrmann, SJ (who joined us from Boston College) it made for a full sanctuary.

Here are pics of Fr. Frank anointing with the Sacred Chrism as he Confirms all four of the newest members in the Catholic Church

All in all it was a wonderful Easter Vigil. Being able to welcome 4 people into the Church capped off 2 years of formation. It was so good to see them profess their faith and recieve the sacraments we have talked about so much.

With the Vigil under our belts it was on to Easter Day liturgies. First, we went to the AUTEC Navy Base. Here Fr. Frank and I pose at the Chapel doors with our pianist after this Easter celebration.

Then it was off to Cargill Creek, where we baptized two children as part of our Easter Day celebration there. Here Fr. Frank watches and I welcome one of the two children, and her mother and Godmother, with the traditional blessing at the door.

Here we bless the water we are about to use to baptize our newest members of the Catholic Church.

After this celebration, our 7th liturgy of the Triduum/Easter liturgies, it was time to take a deep breath and rest a bit. We were sorry that Fr. Frank had to get back to Boston College so quickly, but he teaches at BC Law School and had a Monday morning flight. We promise that the NEXT time he comes (and there will be a next time) he'll get more beach time, and at least one drink with an umbrella in it.

In retrospect, this Easter was Wonderful wonderful wonderful

Palm Sunday

Well this year Palm Sunday was a bit different from last year.

Fr. Bill Martin was with once once again. A retired Air Force Chaplain, he has been joining us for Palm Sunday through Holy Week and Easter for over a decade now, staying at the AUTEC base during his stay, and getting in a little flyfishing for bonefish at the same time. This year, however, he would be leaving us on Holy Thursday and missing the Triduum and Easter. So while the joy of Palm Sunday was VERY present, it was different knowing Fr. Bill would soon be leaving and missing our Easter Celebration.

With that said, we were blessed to find Fr. Frank Herrmann, a priest from Boston College, who was willing to fly down on Holy Thursday and celebrate the Triduum and Easter. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The day before Palm Sunday we gathered up local palms like last year. Palms here are a bit different from palms distributed in the US. I never realized that in the US we only really got one leaf from the palm branch. In the Bahamas everyone gets a whole branch - which means getting ready for Palm Sunday here is a bit more work.

Fr. Martin blessed the palms outside and processed into church like last year. With everyone waving a branch, this really is an impressive site.

Finally, we proclaim the Gospel of Christ's passion, using the 4 part dialogue that involves the Priest, Deacon, Narrator and Community. This interactive proclamation of the Gospel is a powerful witness to Jesus' passion. This pic is from our parish in Cargill Creek, about 40 miles south of our home in Fresh Creek.

Next it is on to the Triduum - Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday - three days and 6 liturgies later we will finally rejoice on Easter! This year we have 4 adult converts that will be welcomed into the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil - and the Kingdom of God continues to grow, even here on Andros.

Peace

The High School Choir Join Us

Well my friends I am finally able to down load pics from our camera onto the computer. So, while we are in the midst of Easter, I can share with you an event we created during the 5th week of Lent.

I had heard through the grapevine that our High School had a choir, and so I did a little leg work and we were blessed to have a visit by the Central Andros High School Choir. The Bahamas is a Christian nation (that fact is actually written into the Bahamian Constitution). So - the public schools here teach religion classes AND they have a Christian Choir at the High School.

The Choir was looking for places to perform and, after talking to the Director we invited them to join us. Well, it took some planning but it actually happened! It turned out that the biggest challenge was getting them to show up at our 8:30 Sunday morning liturgy. In retrospect I think 8:30 on a Sunday morning is a challenge for most teens, but they were there.

Actually, it was about half. Throughout the service kids would come in and join these 6 hardy souls until we were at about 12 by the end of the service - including 2 liturgical dancers that made the Lord's Prayer come alive.

After this service we drove in a little caravan of cars and mini-vans to the next church and Cargill Creek got a full dose of wonderful singing and the liturgical dancers did not disappoint. We hope that whenever they want to perform in public again they consider us. They were fantastic and they will always be welcome!