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St. Timothy Parish celebrates 30 years with huge outdoor Mass
By Joyce Coronel, news@catholicsun.org
November 20, 2008
MESA — More than 4,000 people packed Dobson High School’s football stadium Nov. 2 to celebrate an outdoor Mass marking the 30th anniversary of the founding of St. Timothy Parish.
Fr. Jack Spaulding, the pastor of St. Timothy’s for the last two years, spoke of the thousands of people who had received sacraments at the parish during its 30-year history. He said 7,693 people had been baptized and 8,124 had received their first Communion at St. Timothy’s so far.
The weekly church bulletin featured photos of a younger Fr. Spaulding and Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien dedicating the new church building back in 1982. Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted told the congregation he thought it providential that Bishop O’Brien was on hand to celebrate the occasion since St. Timothy’s was the first church he dedicated as a new bishop.
“Tens of thousands have already been blessed by our community,” Fr. Spaulding told those gathered. “Can you imagine how many more will be blessed in the years to come?”
Fr. Spaulding said he hoped “many of us will be with the Lord by then… and they will be praying for us. That’s how it goes — it’s the communion of the saints.”
“Do we believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ?” Fr. Spaulding asked the crowd, to which he received a resounding “Yes.”
“Do we believe in our own resurrection?” he asked, as choruses of “yes” echoed from those seated in folding chairs on the field and from the thousands in the stands.
“We thank the Lord for the many ministries He has led us into,” Fr. Spaulding said. “The banners remind us that what we see at the altar we need to take out into the world.”
Bishop Olmsted echoed that missionary sentiments in his closing remarks.
“It’s appropriate that we celebrate in the Year of St. Paul because Timothy was called to Christ through St. Paul,” he said. “He not only came and saw, but he himself became an apostle. That is what each of us is called to do.”
Fr. Gerry LaPatka, who has served St. Timothy’s for years but was not present at the outdoor Mass, had prepared something special to give the two bishops in honor of the occasion.
The retired priest designed and carved two wooden statues of St. Timothy, which Fr. Spaulding presented to Bishop Olmsted and Bishop O’Brien.
Joan Severance, a parishioner since 1987, has been involved in many ministries at St. Timothy’s over the years. She said she was touched by the “faithfulness of the parish through good times and bad. That’s why we stay — because we’re a communion of believers.” The choir, composed of 95 children and adults from the parish, was accompanied by an orchestra, and a large yellow banner above the stage reminded the faithful to “Celebrate the Spirit.”
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