St. John the Apostle Parish celebrates its 50-year focus as a faith family

Members of Bloomington Deanery faith communities bow their heads in prayer during a Jan. 31, 2013, liturgy celebrated by then-Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin at St. John the Apostle Church in Bloomington. The parish is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2020. (Criterion file photo by Mike Krokos)

By John Shaughnessy

There’s no doubt that other parishes will challenge the claim, but people who have worshipped at the present location of St. John the Apostle Parish in Bloomington are quick to say it’s “the prettiest parish in the archdiocese.”

Yet even with its location on a hill spanning more than 40 scenic acres, the parish has a more defining quality as it marks its 50th anniversary this year, according to parishioners. What stands out most to them is its reputation as a “people’s parish,” “a family parish.”

“It’s just been a family to us, and I don’t know a better way to describe it,” says Ed Timperman, who has been a member of the parish with his wife Liz since 1977. “It’s been a family that we’ve always gone to and enjoyed being a part of.”

The Timpermans credit that “family” and “people” focus to the parish’s founding pastor, Father Francis “Frank” Buck, who once shared this insight: “Being a member of a parish family means having all the joys and frustrations, all the responsibilities and anxieties of belonging to any family. Our faith, not blood, is the bond that unites us.”

Father Buck immediately stressed that bond from the day that St. John the Apostle Church was dedicated on Oct. 21, 1970. With no school at this new parish, Father Buck made a strong religious education program a priority, says Denise Sawyer, who has written a history of the parish’s 50 years.

“Parishioners had been encouraged from the beginning to become actively involved in the religious education program, with the result that most children attended classes regularly and many parents were teachers,” Sawyer notes.

“Working together had brought parishioners together. They worshipped together, they learned together, and they played together. They began to call their parish ‘the People’s Parish.’ ”

That emphasis continued when the parish had to relocate.

Originally built on the land of a quiet horse farm, the first church found itself in the midst of a booming commercial area by the mid-1990s. As a parish committee searched for a new location, committee member Ann Floyd followed a “for sale” sign that led her to “this beautiful, big, wildflower-covered, flat meadow” atop a hill. It’s where the new church would be built and dedicated on Dec. 20, 1998.

A dedication booklet noted, “Look closely at the 14 narrow, floor-to-ceiling windows of multi-colored, faceted glass. Each depicts a Station of the Cross, Christ’s agonizing path to Calvary.

“Also, note the three large stained-glass windows behind the altar. These and the Stations of the Cross windows were removed from the original church and incorporated into the design of the new building as symbols of the continuity of our parish life.”

The continuity of “the People’s Parish” prevailed, too.

“The people intimately involved in the building of the new church had a very deep commitment to the maintenance of the facilities, the grounds,” says Father Michael Fritsch, the parish’s pastor from 2001 to 2013. “There was the sense, ‘This is ours. We’re going to take care of this.’ It was a real part of their family.”

Now the pastor of Mary, Queen of Peace Parish in Danville, Father Fritsch says about his 12 years at St. John’s: “A fun place and nice people. They took an interest in the life of the parish. When I was there, we started a young married couples’ group. I got them together and they eventually took over the social events of the parish. Really nice families. And that definitely continues.”

The Timpermans have experienced that family feeling through the years. Their two daughters, Sarah and Emily, were baptized and married in the parish church. Ed has been a constant in his 43 years at the parish, doing a lot of everything from parish council president to maintenance committee chair. Liz served snacks in the religious education program and was a member of the parish’s board of education.

“It’s always nice to see friendly faces, people you have known for a long time and you’ve watched their children grow up,” Liz says. “It’s a family place.”

Just as Father Buck noted years ago, it’s a family bound by faith, says Sawyer, the parish’s most recent historian and its 50th anniversary chairperson. She also writes stories about the faith journeys of her fellow parishioners for the Sunday bulletin.

Her own faith journey is directly tied to the parish. A member of the Methodist faith earlier in her life, she was drawn to the Catholic faith by St. John’s and was received into the full Communion of the Church in 2005.

“This parish has meant everything to me. It’s transformed my life,” she says. “It’s because of the people I’ve gotten to know, the priests I’ve gotten to know, and all I’ve learned in the process about the Church.”

Her own transformation connects to the prediction that then-Archbishop George J. Biskup made when he dedicated the first parish church in 1970: “This church will be a blessing to all people. Treasure it. Be with God in it. And as you leave, take God with you.”

Fifty years later, that blessing still guides “the People’s Parish.” †