Our Lady of Good Hope Catholic Church, situated
near the Fraser River on the main thoroughfare of Hope, B.C., draws
a committed following for Mass on Saturday afternoons and early
Sunday mornings. A church bell lets passing traffic down busy Water
Avenue know that all are welcome, while across the street, the
Fraser continues its silent flow.
It's a small parish," noted Father John Tritschler, who has served
the upper Fraser Valley parish for the past two years. "While
serving in the Arctic I once heard a wolf howling. The wolf was
between a valley and a canyon. Hope is the same."
Among the strengths of Our Lady of Good Hope Parish is its support
for daily Mass attendance, parish socials, and musical
get-togethers. The Catholic Women's Auxiliary is vital and one of
the mainstays of the parish. Senior parishioners are appreciated for
their parish loyalty and continued giving of thei time and talents.
Reaching out to younger parishioners is among challenges the parish
faces.
During the past few years parishioners have participated in the
inter-church Advent walk and the Good Friday Cross walk, as well as
the May Marian walk and the Christ walk on the feast of Corpus
Christi.
Father Tritschler said a new pastoral plan, drafted by the parish
since the archdiocesan synod, will build on a strong foundation.
While addressing the spiritual needs of the parish, the plan also
emphasizes its evangelizing role within the parish and the
community.
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Marianne Meadahl / Special to The B.C.
Catholic
Father John Tritschler, shown with two generations of parishioners at St. Michael's Church, Shxwowhamel Reserve, one of the churches served by Our Lady of Good Hope Parish in Hope. Father Tritschler holds baby Tristan Cantin, while behind him is Lorraine George. |
The plan was a combined parish effort. In March 2007 Glenn Darling,
a member of the parish pastoral council, prepared and distributed a
parish survey to all the parishioners. Twenty-one percent of the
parishioners returned the survey with their evaluation and comments
about Our Lady of Good Hope parish life.
The parish pastoral council spent a number of meetings discussing
the results of that survey and the personal parish pastoral plans
that parish pastoral council members and the pastor had each
composed. From those meetings a consolidated parish pastoral plan
was developed, reviewed, and approved by the parish pastoral
council.
Under its new mandate, the parish will examine how to modify its
present role in reaching out to the needy, who often come to the
rectory for assistance. Continuing efforts will be made to twin with
a third-world country.
The plan highlights the parish's role in providing spiritual
outreach to the region's native people. It also calls on
parishioners to become more active in the parish, grow in
appreciation of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the sacrament of
confession, and the sacrament of the anointing of the sick.
The parish will continue to encourage Bible studies and adult
education, as well as the formation of a prayer group and promoting
Catholic values in visible ways, such as taking part in pro-life
activities and marriage-encounter weekends.
The parish has been a mainstay of its community for nearly 150
years. Its location was a logical choice for the early Oblate
Fathers as they established their posts along the vast stretch of
the Fraser River.
Like others built along the river, the parish served not only the
local area but became a base from which missionary priests could
venture out to reach the many small native communities in outlying
areas.
Today such missionary work continues. Father Tritschler serves
Hope's 100-family parish but also spends a fair amount of his time
travelling throughout the upper Fraser Valley and into stretches of
the Fraser Canyon to reach 13 small native communities, where some
of his congregations include just a few families.
Since arriving in Hope, Father Tritschler has made contact with all
the native communities and has established relationships through
regular weekly visits on his mission rounds.
"A huge ingredient in my role as a missionary is teaching the Christ
Factor: the significance of Jesus Christ, and working towards
restoring the native peoples' confidence in the Catholic Church,
especially among those who attended residential schools," he said.
"It's a matter of bringing the word of God, and loving the people."
The communities, all within an hour radius of Hope, are made up of
families largely from the Sto:lo and Thompson peoples, and stretch
from Ruby Creek and Chawatil reserves, east of Agassiz, to those at
nearby Union Bar and others further upriver in the Fraser Canyon,
including Boston Bar, North Bend, and Boothroyd.
On the Shxwowhamel reserve, west of Hope, on the feast of Corpus
Christi, two small children waited by the church for a Saturday
night Mass after ringing the bell for the celebration. Six more
children, Leona Kelly, and Lorraine George, a recently baptized
grandmother, soon arrived. After Mass everyone joined in singing
during a procession with the Blessed Sacrament down the reserve's
main road.
"There are typically only two families at Shxwowhamel who faithfully
come for Mass. Two young people and one adult who had regularly
attended Mass were baptized at Easter of 2006. It's important to
maintain a presence here, and in all of these communities," noted
Father Tritschler.
Besides his regular weekly visits, funerals and other special
occasions provide the priest opportunities for outreach. The funeral
of one well-known woman from the town of Hope drew an overflow of
family and friends to Our Lady of Good Hope Church. To accommodate
the overflow, gracious parishioners set up a closed-circuit TV
broadcast into the church hall and rearranged the hall's furniture.
The most Hope-ful sign in the Hope parish, said Father Tritschler,
is having committed parishioners who receive the sacraments and
practise spiritual and corporal works of mercy.
Additional stories, photos at www.bccatholic.ca.
