The Official Newspaper of the Diocese of Little Rock
McGEHEE -- Although small in numbers, there is activity almost every day at St. Mary Church in McGehee.
On a cold Saturday, Jan. 9, when the temperature did not get above freezing, 30 people showed up for the vigil Mass. As always, some arrived 30 minutes before Mass to recite the rosary for their intentions and for Catholics who have strayed from the Church.
The church's administrator, Father Chuma P. Ibebuike, who lives in Crossett, was on vacation, so different priests were filling in and coming to celebrate Mass. This Saturday, Father Phillip Reaves from Monticello arrived and Mass soon got underway.
He preached on the Sunday Gospel of the baptism of the Lord and reminded the parishioners, that especially in a church without a resident pastor, it is important that they be priests and prophets to one another and keep the parish going.
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On Tuesdays, a Mass is celebrated at 8:30 a.m. when a priest is available.
"Our church is surviving, we are doing well, meeting our expenses," said caretaker William Conway.
In addition to the daily gatherings, the parish has several ministries, including a food pantry, which was started in 1987, and home rehabilitation program for low-income homeowners.
Conway said there are some Hispanic families in the area, and they have been invited, but there are language and cultural barriers.
"Our priests, from the time Father Erik Pohlmeier left, none of them speak Spanish, except for Father Reaves over in Monticello, who occasionally comes over, but he says our English Mass here. ... The Hispanics, I have tried to contact them, work with them, but they are looking for a cultural experience," he said.
"Well, in McGehee, we don't have any way of offering them a cultural experience," Conway added. "Our church can't offer that because none of our priests speak Spanish."
Conway said he had been trying to see if people were interested in organizing a Cinco de Mayo celebration, commemorating a victory by a small Mexican army over a larger French force, but he has not had much success.
"So we have a non-Hispanic parish, and we have a dwindling population and that is the way it goes," he said.
Dr. Robert Prosser and his family have been attending Mass at the parish for 37 years.
"This parish is very important to my family," he said. "We like being able to go to church here. We would like to have our own priest here. We would have better contact. Maybe some day that will come to be again."
He attributed the declining number of parishioners to the lack of a resident priest at the parish.
"If we had a pastor, it would feel more like a home."
"For as small as we are and no more religious people that are here, we actually do have some activities," Prosser said. "We have an occasional church dinner, rosary, we are still pretty active."
The church complex includes a rectory, parish hall and a former friary.
Throughout the year, mission groups from different parishes in the diocese and from other churches stay at the hall or the former friary while they are repairing, weatherproofing and painting nearby homes.
The McGehee Food Pantry began at St. Mary and is still part of the mission work for the Delta parish. It serves many poor and elderly in the community.
The parish has a long history of service to Catholics in the area. It is located near the site of the oldest Christian community in Arkansas, a chapel established at Arkansas Post in 1727. The first Catholic Church in McGehee, St. Winand, was set up in 1906 and dedicated in 1908 with 50 parishioners. The current parish hall is named St. Winand Hall.
A school and convent were added by 1915. The parish survived the flood of 1927, although some work had to be done later. A new school building was dedicated in 1928, staffed by Benedictine nuns from St. Scholastica Monastery in Fort Smith. The school closed in 1972.
Its 50th anniversary was celebrated in 1956 with the dedication of a new church seating 165, and a new rectory. The parish celebrated its centennial in 2006.
According to church history, the first baptism recorded in the church registry was in 1906. The second in 1910. The first recorded burial was in 1909.
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