ST. MICHAEL’S 50th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
Weekend of Friday-Sunday, October 13-15
A report from committee chair, Beth North:
There were throngs of people for the opening Welcome Reception Friday evening, including evening prayer.
The Saturday Open House was also well attended, so much so that Ed and Val Lattimer raised over $1,500 for the building fund through the sale of Ed's beautiful works of art -- watercolor as the medium. Hopefully another by-product of the Open House will be full sponsorship of all the orphans of Muhubura in Uganda, as many viewed the movie about the mission trip there which ran continuously.
That evening, in lieu of the planned "Battle of the Christian Bands" we held a more traditional praise band night featuring the St. Michael's Praise Band, led by Brian Miller (as our regular music minister, Dan Seigfried was unavailable due to a work conflict)!
Then, for the grand finale of events Sunday morning, we were nearly at capacity for Dabney (and Mary Ellen) Smith's talk about the experience of ministering to the victims of the Katrina Hurricane in New Orleans Trinity Parish.
Following that special Adult Forum, a combined 10:00 a.m. Eucharist was led by Bishop Little and in addition to celebrating our 50th, Cindy Van Parys renewed her Deaconate vows with her mentor, Deacon Art Wolford there serving in addition to Father Randy and Father Dabney.
Then off we went to the Notre Dame Center for Continuing Education for a lovely luncheon banquet, featuring good food and the entertaining and informing keynote address by mother and son, Ren Singleton and Adrian Stackhouse.
The following were presented special recognition as part of the overall celebration weekend:
-Lynne Switalski -- Chair of the Welcome Reception and fund-raiser extraordinaire (the Rummage Sale!)
-Mary Jane Willoughby -- for single-handedly scrapbooking 50 years of collected clippings, papers and photos into five (one for each decade) binders.
-Beryl and Tony Cockram -- Beryl Chaired the Open House, with Tony as her constant help mate; Tony created and updated our invitation mailing list too
-Barb Quigg -- Chair of the luncheon banquet
-Lenore Cassady -- helped with the luncheon banquet and with refreshments for the adult forum
-Nancy Johnson -- helped with the luncheon banquet and did public relations (that great article about Ed!)
-Father Randy Melton -- so many contributions, they're too numerous to detail!
Many, many other St. Michaels parishioners contributed in big and small ways too!
-Paul McLeod and Linda McLaughlin produced a beautiful souvenir program which was distributed on Sunday morning at the service.
-Randy Van Parys patched and painted the stairway and hall.
-The Mayor of Mishawaka (Jeff Rhea) made a proclamation that October 15, 2006 was St. Michael & All Angels Church Day in Mishawaka -- John Raymer read it aloud during the service Sunday.
Thanks to one and all for making this so much fun and such a big success!
