Parish/Church
St. Anne – Francis Creek
Date and Mass time
September 19, 2015 – 6:00PM Mass
Celebrant
Fr. John Becker
The trip there and back
Francis Creek is pretty close so the trip was quick (as was the plan) but very nice. Took old Hwy 141 (Hwy R now) on the old “lime pickup” run. They were having an old car show across from the church. The days are getting shorter so it was getting dark on the way home, so the seasons are changing. We stopped at Kay’s moms on the way home.
Weather
It was a gorgeous fall-ish day today! It is getting a little cool so short sleeves barely cut it and Kay wore a sweater, but the sun was shining and it was quite wonderful.
Parish History
The parish has a short but sweet history on their website, and it is copied here:
St. Anne Parish was originally organized Father Joseph Brenner, who also organized the parishes of St. Luke's in Two Rivers, St. Isidore in Osman, and St. James in Cooperstown. A church wasn't built until later, though, when his successor, Rev. Joseph Steinbrecher, became pastor in 1877. He served the parish until 1885. He was succeeded by Rev. William Haan, who was succeeded by Rev. Lakoney.
By 1904, when Rev. Vorlichek was pastor, the parish numbered about 70 families. The church, which was victim of a renovation in the 1960s, was left unrestored until an initiative was taken by Father Paul Paider, who overlooked the restoration of the church.
In the mid 2000s, St. Anne school closed, just a few years before Holy Cross school also shut its doors. Today, the parish is under the direction of Father John Becker.
Just a note that St. Anne’s is linked (or at least associated) with Holy Cross in Mishicot and is served by the same pastor and shares things like the bulletin. Nice relationship!
Reflections
Another visit, planned kind of at the last minute to a parish close by, but what a wonderful visit it turned out to be!
We arrived a little early as usual to take some pictures and the grounds are pretty basic there, but we find a smiling and very welcoming Father John in front of church to say hello. We chatted for a little bit and told him our story and also mentioned that we had seen him that week at Uncle Gerhardt’s funeral. What a nice man!
To top it off, just before we were going into church there was our friend from CEW Joyce Cisler! What a blessing! We got a hug from her and also an update on her husband Wayne who just had surgery and is doing well.
It’s an older style church which we tend to prefer and old fashioned and beautiful. It’s larger inside than it would appear from the outside as there’s very little wasted space. Nice crowd and Father John is a very sincere and energetic priest. His homily focused on the Gospel issue of the Apostle’s talking about “who was greatest” in the midst of Jesus telling them of his destiny and how we see so much of that in today’s life and how everyone wants to be first. He challenged us to put others first in our lives. What a great message.
At the end of Mass Father talked about a capitol campaign they are starting for repairs and renovations and at first I kind of wondered about that but as he talked he had such enthusiasm I could see how something like this would really lead to bringing life and energy and vibrancy to the parish. Great stuff.
After Mass we got to talk to Mike V. who is also part of the CEW family. He was communion minister and acknowledged that it would be hard to tell where he would be if it wasn’t for CEW, but he probably would not be in front of church. What a great message!
ANOTHER great trip for us!
Pictures
