As Holy Redeemer Catholic Church of North Bend celebrated its 100th anniversary over the weekend, Master of Ceremonies Steve Greif made an astute observation at Saturday night's centennial program.

“It's important to remember that history is more than just (church) construction dates and priests' tenures,” he said. “It's about the smells, sounds and sights associated with the church and that's why it is so wonderful that we have people here who remember ... so that the children who weren't there can understand what it was really like.”

A history teacher at North Bend High School, Greif made his remark during a series of presentations by various parishioners who spoke about an aspect of church history they were familiar with. For almost two hours, more than 300 congregants in the parish center traveled back to the Coos Catholic School, misty mornings at the Sherman Avenue church and the early days on Bangor Heights.

One week and 100 years after the first sacramental rite was performed at Holy Redeemer parish, the church congregation reminisced about old friends and humorous anecdotes; commended the men and women who helped build the church and bid farewell to an integral part of its community.

To commemorate the occasion, the Most Rev. John Vlazny, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon, joined the Rev. Karl Schray at Sunday morning Mass. In the opening to his sermon, Vlazny provided some of the factual history of the church before lingering on the second priest to serve the North Bend flock, the Rev. Francis Springer. According to the archbishop, Springer had acquired a 7-horsepower motorcycle in order to minister the parishes in Coquille, Myrtle Point, Gardiner and Florence. In addition to the novelty of an early 20th century priest bouncing along to church on a motorcycle, Vlazny entertained his audience by drawing a comparison to a present-day member of the priesthood.

“To me, Father Springer sounds an awful lot like a Father Karl Schray, a man ready and eager to head out on the highway to bring the word of Jesus Christ to his people,” he said.

Recollections

For the most part, the Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning Masses remained close to the familiar liturgical formula. On Saturday evening, however, dedicated congregants had the chance to take the microphone from Schray and elucidate on the impressions Holy Redeemer has made on their lives. Some recollected specific moments in their lives, while others captured general experiences. Others chose levity as the guiding principle in retelling their favorite moments in the church.

One such speaker was the Rev. Scott Vandehey, who served as Holy Redeemer's priest from 1979 through 1987. He admitted to keeping a diary his first two years in North Bend and used the material to look back at the various firsts he experienced: his first Mass, his first meeting with the church elders and his first dinner invitation with a parishioner.

He also recalled one of the first stories he heard about the Rev. Nicholas Deis, who supervised the construction of the church on Bangor Heights in 1976.

In supervising its construction, Deis had a rectory constructed adjacent to the site, without seeking the approval of church elders. Realizing his error, Deis approached the church leaders with a blueprint of the rectory for their consent. After looking at the sketch, the leaders suggested the rectory should be two stories instead of one in order for Deis to better appreciate the brilliant view of the bay. Realizing he was stuck in a corner, Deis had only one course of action.

“Well, it's already built,” Deis said, as Vandehey remembered the tale.

Ruth Wiley, who first attended Holy Redeemer as a child in the 1940s, had a humbler experience to recollect: her first communion. The daughter of a lumber worker, Wiley remembered life being difficult after the war.

“Church was a luxury because it meant a bath was coming,” she said.

On the day of her first communion, Wiley was lined up with the rest of the children at the back of the church when a parishioner walked by and commented that Wiley's finger nails were dirty. One of the nuns overheard the comment, took the girl to a washroom and cleaned her hands. Despite this attention, Wiley was preoccupied with her hands the rest of the ceremony. After Mass, she walked outside and noticed a lady with beautiful white gloves. Wiley said hello to the woman and went on her way. A week later, a pair of white gloves arrived in the mail.

“I could never be for certain, but I was convinced the gloves had come from the lady of the church,” Wiley said.

She kept the gloves tucked away for a number of years until another first communion day arrived and Wiley noticed a young girl with dirty fingers not unlike her own many years before. Wiley made a point of washing that girl's hands and then gave her the gloves.

“Since then, the girl has moved away but I am hopeful that she passed those gloves and the story to another child and kept the circle alive,” Wiley ended.

Teresa Riggs also spoke about the Holy Redeemer church on Sherman Avenue, but in a general fashion. She remembered how the parking lot gravel crunched beneath her feet, the morning mist clinging to the ground as she and her siblings clambered up the wooden staircase to the church.

“I remember the scent of the sea salt mixed with the smell of flowers and cigarette smoke as the men got a few last puffs before entering the church,” Riggs said. “Once inside, there was an immediate contrast of light and dark. I loved the smell of furniture polish and the rustle and hush of people entering and sitting down in their pews.”

The evening concluded when three church elders, George Gephardt, 91; Mary Granger, 91; and Jim Hillar, 78, stood together to cut the centennial cake.

Goodbye Sisters of Mercy

The weekend finally served as a farewell to the Sisters of Mercy, a religious order that arrived in the area in 1906 to administer to Mercy Hospital, the original location of Holy Redeemer. In the intervening years, the sisters have served patients and the elderly at Mercy, McAuley Hospital and St. Catherine's Nursing Home and Residence. The three remaining sisters, Sr. Mary Laetice Williams, RSM; Sr. Madeleva Comiskey, RSM; and Sr. Mary Paulita Van Cleave, RSM, were in attendance on Saturday and received a packet of gifts and remembrances from the congregation.

The three sisters will retire to Omaha, Neb., where the regional headquarters for the Sisters of Mercy is located.

The last Sisters of Mercy will leave North Bend in January, just less than 101 years after their founding members arrived on Feb. 6, 1906.