Heat being added to church in Alaskan village

Published: 2003-12-19

CLARK'S POINT, Alaska (CNS) -- Although Clark's Point in southwest Alaska has no priest, the Yup'ik fishing village of 65 residents does have a church. But with no heat or electricity, St. Peter the Fisherman Church has been used only during the summer for about the last 12 years. About eight months out of the year, parishioners worship in living rooms or at the town's only school. But sometimes, Ann Martin told the Catholic Anchor, Anchorage archdiocesan newspaper, "you just need to go sit in the church and say a rosary." There she feels "the reverence, the peace," she said. The 15 or so parishioners in Clark's Point plan to winterize the church with help from members of Martin's home-town parish, Church of the Assumption in Franklin, La. Martin moved from Louisiana in 2000 to teach elementary school in the village. After folks at her parish in Franklin heard about the tiny church in Clark's Point, they donated money to help winterize it.

Copyright (c) 2003 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .