July 2019
Glenmary Home Missioners
Grayson’s Success Story
Newness in Mission
Six years after Glenmary returned sacramental care of Carter County, Ky., to the Diocese of Lexington, longtime parishioner Jean Bowe reports that Sts. John and Elizabeth parish is thriving. It’s hard to imagine the earliests days of the Carter County’s Catholic community, back when electricity was being brought to the rest of the county beyond Carter Caves, a tourist favorite. The late Jean Bowe, musical Mom Agnita Applegate, one of the founding parishioners, for whom the parish center is named, used to tell stories of when she and her husband “R.E.” (that’s “Rural Electric”) Applegate moved here with the electric company and could find no nearby Catholic church. The Applegates and other founding families traveled, weekly, an hour or more up Route 60 to Holy Family parish, in Ashland. Then Glenmary came, in 1962, at the invitation of the local bishop, and set up shop in Grayson, the county seat. Jean Bowe has heard the stories many times: The first regular Masses were celebrated in a mobile home; over time a community was gathered, funds were raised, and a beautiful church building was constructed by one of the Glenmary Brothers’ building crews. Glenmary Father Patrick O’Donnell designed the building, and requested that local materials be used when possible. Sts. John and Elizabeth, named as the saints were being canonized, is constructed of local wood, with an altar crafted from local stone. Jean came to Sts. John and Elizabeth after searching Carter County for a church for her family in the 1970s. “To me it was very energetic,” Jean says, “and homey. Here I came with my kids—the oldest was five. I was welcomed, and the kids were welcomed.” Jean, a Lutheran, had married a Catholic, Ed Bowe, before moving to Grayson from Michigan. “When
I once had the privilege of filling in, between pastors, for about five months, at Sts. John and Elizabeth church in Carter County, Ky. (see story to the left). It was around Easter, and, just to get peoples’ attention, I showed up dressed as the Easter Bunny! (not at Mass, of course). The children enjoyed the novelty. Missioners, after all, are always about new and different things. Back in our earliest days, now eighty years ago, our founder, Father William Howard Bishop, created and built a seminary to train priests for the home missions. It turned out to be more space and program than Glenmary needed, and we eventually moved nearby to our new, more modest headquarters. In the past decades, in the wake of Vatican Council II, Glenmary saw a flourishing in the Church’s ecumenical outreach and led the way in the Roman Catholic Church’s dialogue with Southern Baptists. We’re now forging new ground with the Disciples of Christ. It was, and is, a new opportunity for mission. Today, as the Church in the U.S. adusts to a widespread priest shortage, we’ve gathered into smaller mission areas and are seeking ways to recruit men from other parts of the world to help develop new missions. It’s that mission spirit of newness that keeps us going. We’re honored to have you as our partner.
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Yours in Christ,
Father Dan Dorsey President