Summer 2008
Kansas Monks
True meaning of ‘church’ rises from ashes of St. Ann fire Faith, prayer, community survive inferno’s sorrowful aftermath By Dan Madden
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Photo by Dan Madden
All that remained from the fire were four walls and the landmark bell tower, which was unable to be saved.
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Submitted photo
s dawn extinguished night on Monday, April 21, Effingham, Kan., was a parched community. In the dark hours of morning the small Kansas town’s entire water supply had been futilely emptied into the roaring flames engulfing St. Ann Catholic Church. Tears were likewise in short supply as hundreds of people gathered in the heat of the burning 111-year-old landmark. There were simply none left to shed. Gene Hegarty, a St. Ann parishioner of 75 years, arrived at the church not long after the firefighters and watched its incineration as emotions threatened to overwhelm him. “At a time like that you remember the funerals, the weddings, my own first Communion, the baptisms of my children, so many memories,” he said. “It felt like it was all going away. I know it’s only a building, but it was like I
Investigators are still unsure of the cause of the fire that destroyed St. Ann Church.
was losing a member of the family. I cried; my wife cried; there were hundreds of people crowded around and there were many tears shed.” Abbot Barnabas Senecal, and Prior James Albers, of St. Benedict’s Abbey, and their fellow monk, Father Gerard Senecal, pastor of St. Benedict’s and Sacred Heart parishes in Atchison, arrived to support Benedictine Father Ben Tremmel and his St. Ann parishioners. As did parishioners from St. Louis parish in Good Intent and St. Joseph parish in Atchison. Prior James, who arrived at the scene of the fire at 5 a.m., returned later that evening for a parish prayer service that was attended by more than 400 people. St. Ann parishioners were also comforted by members of surrounding Protestant congregations who arrived
on the scene and later joined them for the prayer service. Larry and Beverly Bouyer, he the pastor of Easton United Methodist Church and she of Nortonville and Cummings United Methodist Churches, arrived at 5:15 a.m. and Larry would participate in the prayer service. When Pastor Jeff Cochran of Effingham Union Church finished his duties as a firefighter, he also participated in the prayer service. Pastors and members of Lancaster, Camp Creek and Muscotah United Methodist Churches also attended the prayer service. A bouquet of flowers arrived at the parish hall from an Episcopal congregation in Topeka that had lost its church to a fire three years before and had been offered the use of a Jewish synagogue in which to worship while it rebuilt. “Our thoughts and prayers
are with you at this difficult time,” the card reads, “Your friends at St. David’s Church, Topeka, Kansas.” “Whatever adjectives we have in front of our names around here we’re still family in Christ,” Pastor Cochran said. Monday evening, in a packed parish hall, as the church still smoldered next door, Catholics and Protestants waited for Father Ben’s words of comfort. “We just have to keep reminding one another that people are the church and that had not burned,” he said. Without exception, Father Ben’s parishioners took his message to heart. They find comfort in the bonds of their parish community. They note the teamwork that pulls together their popular annual
