Bishop Beckman and longtime pastor Father Sweeney will mark the golden anniversary on Aug. 23
By Dan McWilliams
Bishop Mark Beckman will celebrate a Mass honoring the 50th anniversary of St. Christopher Parish in Jamestown at 6:30 p.m. CDT (7:30 p.m. EDT) on Saturday, Aug. 23.
A dinner in St. Teresa Hall will follow Mass.
Father Michael Sweeney, who has been pastor of St. Christopher since 1999 while also serving as the shepherd of Blessed Sacrament in Harriman and St. Ann in Lancing, will concelebrate the golden-anniversary Mass.
Workers prepare to place the steeple atop the unfinished St. Christopher Church on Dec. 11, 2007.
St. Christopher was organized in 1974 as the Jamestown Catholic Mission, connected at that time to Blessed Sacrament. For a short time, Mass was held in the home of Bill and Emily Craven, then at the Fentress County Bank. Mr. Craven, who established a building fund in the mission’s early days, became a Catholic in 1983.
Beginning in 1975, Masses were held at Allardt Presbyterian Church in Allardt, located southeast of Jamestown, which was the mission’s home for 33 years. Emily Craven located the Allardt Presbyterian church for the young Catholic mission. Fentress County Catholics honored the Allardt church in October 2002 upon its 100th anniversary.
The mission parish was renamed the Catholic Community of Fentress County upon the Diocese of Knoxville’s establishment in 1988.
Charter parishioner and Jamestown attorney Jim Romer, who married wife Denise on Oct. 11, 1975, at Allardt Presbyterian, has served as a parish leader for St. Christopher since 1990.
The Cravens were Denise Romer’s parents.
In 2000, a hillside property totaling 12.45 acres for a new church on Holt Spur Road in Jamestown was purchased from the Holt family by the diocese with the help of the Catholic Foundation of East Tennessee. The site is just off a bypass near the major intersection of U.S. Highway 127 and state Highway 52, and the church can be clearly seen from 127.
Mr. Craven died in 2000. Just a few days after his death, the deed came in on the mission’s newly purchased property.
Parishioners of St. Francis of Assisi in Fairfield Glade and St. Mary in Gatlinburg, along with other East Tennessee parishes and Catholic Extension, contributed to the St. Christopher building fund.
Bearers of Christ
Bishop Joseph E. Kurtz issued a decree on Nov. 9, 2005, approving parishioners’ choice of St. Christopher as the new name of the parish.
“I was drawn positively to St. Christopher because the word itself means ‘a bearer of Christ,’” Bishop Kurtz said at the time. “The legend is that the Christ Child was borne across a river by St. Christopher.”
Bishop Kurtz said the saint “was at the top of the list” for Fentress parishioners when they formally petitioned him for a name.
The bishop was reminded of the eventual patron of Fentress County Catholics when he visited Cologne, Germany, during summer 2005 for World Youth Day.
“Very prominent in the cathedral is a statue of St. Christopher that has welcomed pilgrims over the centuries,” Bishop Kurtz said. “So, the notions of our being a pilgrim people, bearing Christ in our daily lives, and through baptism bearing Christ to the world make the name of St. Christopher especially appropriate. I was happy to issue the decree.”
Father Sweeney said in 2010 that “having the opportunity to have their own church was immensely important to the parishioners. This is one of the reasons why they wanted St. Christopher as the name and patron of their parish. They truly understand what it means to be a pilgrim people.”
Bob Criswell tolled the church bell at St. Christopher at the church’s July 25, 2009, dedication. The 650-pound bell, shown before its installation, was acquired in May 2005.
In their petition to Bishop Kurtz, the Fentress Catholics said “the name…and the powerful message of St. Christopher best suits our history and our aspirations….St. Christopher has always enjoyed a special place in the hearts of the faithful of this faith community as we have sought to carry Christ in our hearts. We believe the name of St. Christopher Catholic Church will speak to all who become aware of our church and will be an instrument of greater acceptance and openness on the part of our neighbors.”
Father Sweeney and more than 35 couples and individuals signed the petition.
Ground was broken for a church at an outdoor Mass on June 10, 2006. Bishop Kurtz and Father Sweeney were joined in breaking ground by Mr. Romer and his wife, Denise, and Peggy Dalton, who along with Denise Romer had lived in Fentress County since the 1950s. Longtime parishioner Marie Cottrell also attended.
Construction began on July 30, 2007, and the first Masses after more than three decades in Allardt were held at the new church on June 7, 2008. The church cost $650,000, seats 130, and has 3,200 square feet each upstairs and down.
Bishop Richard F. Stika dedicated the new St. Christopher Church on its patron’s feast day July 25, 2009, with Father Sweeney and former pastor Monsignor Philip Thoni concelebrating. Some 75 parishioners and guests attended.
“Just as incense rises to the heavens and our songs rise to the heavens, so today our prayers should rise to the heavens in gratitude again for the foundation of this church,” Bishop Stika said at the dedication, “for those who so long ago in the ’70s believed that the community could gather together in the name of the Lord Jesus to make a difference—a difference in faith and a difference in trust in God.”
Father Calvin Blankinship, pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Fruitland, Idaho, also concelebrated. The Idaho parish donated the pews for St. Christopher Church. Deacon Sean Smith, diocesan chancellor, assisted at the Mass. The Rev. Don Padget of Allardt Presbyterian took part in the events before Mass and presented a gift to Father Sweeney at the end of the liturgy.
Charter parishioner Peggy Dalton presented the key to the church to Bishop Stika outside the front doors before Mass. Mr. Romer gave the church blueprints to the bishop. New parents Becca and Pat Padget, holding the youngest St. Christopher parishioner, 1-month-old Sophia, presented a picture of the church to Bishop Stika.
A relic of St. Rafqa (1832-1914), a Lebanese Maronite Sister canonized in 2001, was placed in the new altar.
Father Sweeney built sanctuary appointments such as tables, chairs, kneelers, candelabras, lamp stands, and more for St. Christopher. He said at the dedication that St. Christopher Parish’s experience was “unusual” as families paid rent to the Allardt church for 33 years and set up and took down the implements for Mass every week throughout that time.
“I called the experience the ‘church in a box,’” Father Sweeney said. “Everything the community owned fit into a small box. Families took turns bringing the box to church, setting up a makeshift altar, and preparing for the celebration of the Eucharist, then putting everything back in the box afterward and taking it home with them.”
The parish remained a mission of Blessed Sacrament in Harriman until Feb. 15, 2010, when the Diocese of Knoxville Presbyteral Council heard Bishop Stika’s petition regarding the status of St. Christopher along with that of another mission parish and quasi-parish in the diocese at that time. Being able to stand on its own financially made St. Christopher deserving of elevation to a full parish, Deacon Smith said in 2010.
Previous pastors at St. Christopher Parish were Jesuit Father Leo Schroeder from 1974 to 1976, based at Blessed Sacrament; three Benedictine priests, Father Charles Reiner in 1976, Father Gabriel Germann from 1976-78, and Father Paul Koehler from 1978 -83, all based at St. Alphonsus in Crossville; Salvatorian Father George Sheehan from 1983 to 1996; and then-Father Thoni, a longtime Diocese of Knoxville priest, from 1996 to 1999.
Father Sheehan and Father Thoni lived at St. Francis of Assisi in Fairfield Glade while serving the faithful in Fentress County. With Father Sweeney’s arrival at Blessed Sacrament in 1999, care of the mission returned to its original parish in Harriman.
The 6:30 p.m. Saturday vigil at St. Christopher Church now draws around 80 people. A bilingual Sunday-morning Communion service that began in Advent 2008 has up to 20 people attending each week.