Easter Sunday at St. John the Apostle, Oregon City

K sez -

It is hard to write about St. John the Apostle because it is so familiar to me. There are a lot of wonderful things happening there - they are the first Catholic church I have heard of to have a "sister church." Theirs is in Honduras. They send groups down there and host groups here and do as many exchanges as possible.

They also have a concert this Sunday, April 11, at 3pm featuring Donna Cori Gibson. I guess she is a pretty famous Catholic singer. The concert is free. I will go to check it out if anyone wants to come along...

They will have Matthew Kelly, famous author, speaking on May 15th at 7pm on "how to be the best possible you." I will try to go to that for sure.

So for a Catholic church, lots going on!

One of the best things about St. John the Apostle is Krisi Christensen - she has an amazing voice - especially when she sings "wade in the water" or any other old-time gospel hymns. Krisi has the rare ability to smile and sing at the same time - how do they do that? You have to check this church out, if only to hear her sing.

And since I am getting a reputation for using the bathrooms everywhere I go, I will report on the bathrooms at SJA. Well, nothing really to report. Everything in good working order.

The church was packed - not surprising, since Easter is the only time some people show up at church...everybody was decked out in their best. But I will tell you that this is usually a pretty well dressed crowd. Oregon City folk tend to all know each other, so if you are new there, you will have to be outgoing if you want to meet anybody.

Another cool thing about SJA is that they have a singles club. That's right - a Catholic church with a singles club! Who knew? It is called "parishioners without partners" and they have a full schedule of lunch parties, field trips, concerts to attend as group. They say that membership is open to all people, ages 40 and over, divorced, separated, widowed, widowers. My mom is going to go to some of their events, so we'll see who really shows up. She is worried that it will actually be only "70 and over." Promise to give a report on that once I hear back from her!

Father Hunegar, the priest at SJA, is a great shepherd of his flock. All priests have different gifts (just like all people...hmmm) some are good confessors, some are great homilists. Father Hunegar is really good at showing up at every parish event and many parish meetings and making sure everybody knows he cares. He has said some things in his homilies that have stuck with me for years. but this weekend being Easter, and he likely had a very very long night Saturday with the Easter vigil and all the baptisms, I think he may have been a little tired on Sunday.

Not a lot of ethnic mix here - it is Oregon City after all! LOTS of kids- being a parish with a school is probably the reason for that. But on the other hand,when I go to Saint Therese, which also has a school, not so many kids at church there...
SJA has an active youth group for middle and high school students (led by Krisi).

I was very pleased to see that T enjoyed SJA, even though it is Catholic. There are other great Catholic churches out there - I plan to take her to every single one of them! Stay tuned.