ST. MARK CHURCH

50th Anniversary

St. Mark's Church:  50 years after the seed

"He said, "This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed..."

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Administrator / Pastor:  Rev. Thomas King, C.S.C.
Pastoral Assistant:  Brother Dennis Meyers, C.S.C.

3 North 19th St., Niles, MI 49120-2117
Telephone:  269-683-8650  Fax: 269-683-9314

St. Mark's Church:  50 years after the seed

by Rick Martinez

for The Rev. Joseph Koma and St. Mark Church  

January 2005

Niles, Michigan

“He said, ‘’This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow; he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”

-- Mark 4: 30-32

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the Earth, the Earth was a  formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.

Then, God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

God saw how good the light was. God then separated the light from the darkness.

God called the light “day,” and the darkness “night.” Thus, evening came and morning followed--the first day.

It is the first story of Creation, and is there in the Holy Bible. Genesis. Chapter 1. Verses 1 to 5. The creation of Saint Mark Church started with light that began twinkling in 1952. That was when the Most Rev. Joseph H. Albers, who was two years shy of his 25th anniversary of his consecration as bishop, decided the Diocese of Lansing needed to search for a home for a new parish for Niles. The increasing spiritual needs of the community, in his estimation, meant Niles needed another Roman Catholic parish in addition to St. Mary’s Church.

The new parish was named after St. Mark, the patron saint of notaries. The second Gospel was written by St. Mark, who, in the New Testament, is sometimes called John Mark. Both he and his mother, Mary, were highly esteemed in the early Church. And his mother's house in Jerusalem served as a meeting place for Christians there.

St. Mark was associated with St. Paul and St. Barnabas, who was St. Mark's cousin, on their missionary journey through the island of Cyprus. Later, he accompanied St. Barnabas alone. He was in Rome with St. Peter and St. Paul. Tradition ascribes to him the founding of the Church in Alexandria. St. Mark wrote the second Gospel, possibly in Rome sometime before the year 60 A.D.; he wrote it in Greek for the Gentile converts to Christianity. Tradition tells us that St. Mark was requested by the Romans to set down the teachings of St. Peter. This seems to be confirmed by the position which St. Peter has in the Gospel. In this way the second Gospel is a record of the life of Jesus as seen through the eyes of the Prince of the Apostles. St. Mark is symbolically represented by a lion. The Latin and Greek Churches celebrate his feast on April 25, but the Greek Church keeps also the feast of John Mark on September 27.

As for the church named after St. Mark, the work had begun. The diocese closed on land for St. Mark Parish in March 1955. On June 29, 1955, Albers issued a decree establishing St. Mark Church. On July 20, 1955, the Rev. Francis E. Timmons was appointed St. Mark’s first pastor.

On September 14, 1955, the Niles Community Schools Board of Education approved use Oak Manor School’s gymnasium as a temporary home for St. Mark Church’s Sunday services for $15 per Sunday. The accommodations were Spartan, with parishioners kneeling on the wooden gymnasium floor. There were no pews and a temporary altar for Father Timmons.

He celebrated daily Mass on a portable altar in St. Mark’s first rectory at 2401 Kathryn Street.

St. Mark Church, in the beginning, included nine acres on the eastern side of Nineteenth Street in Niles Township. On the property was a tree. The finances to get it all going was a $9,000 loan from the Diocese of Lansing. Faith is what Albers and the diocese had in the 300 or so families part of St. Mark’s start.

Little by little, the faith--and the church--grew.

The Ushers Club--with Charles Fuller as president--was organized in January 1956.

On March 18, 1956, ground got turned and broken for the “temporary” church for St. Mark Parish. The construction of the church-hall and rectory--now known as St. Mark Parish Hall at Nineteenth Street--cost $160,000. The accommodations, designed by Kalamazoo architectural firm Stapert, Pratt, Bulthuis, Sprau and Carrothers, included the sanctuary, two confessionals, a Sacristy, a crying room and kitchen. Folding doors hid the Sanctuary during parish events, including socials and religious instruction.

Albers was on hand on October 21, 1956, dedicating the “temporary” St. Mark Church. The church had been built with Timmons hammering away to help complete St. Mark’s home, with Dick Stull building communion rails and a lectern and Robert Atchinson of Kalamazoo an altar.

Within a decade, it was apparent St. Mark Church needed more than its “temporary” home.

On April 26, 1967, at Niles High School auditorium, the Ushers Club sold tickets for the parish’s first fund-raising event to pay for the new church: a WLS National Barn Dance.

Construction began six months later in October 1967 at 3 North Nineteenth Street on a new $210,000 church.

On Thanksgiving Day 1968, the first Mass was celebrated in the new church.

On December 21, 1968, the Most Rev. Alexander Zaleski, bishop of the Diocese of Kalamazoo, dedicated the new church.

St. Mary’s pastor the Rev. John Slowey was impressed with the reach to the heavens of the new St. Mark Church, comparing it to a “space capsule” in his sermon.

The church, like its predecessor, seats 600.

“He said, ‘To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the Earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that bird of the sky can dwell in its shade.’”

-- Mark 4: 30-32