Cass Clergy Feted
Published 9:47 am Thursday, February 3, 2005
By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Cass County Civitan Club honored area church leaders Wednesday noon at First United Methodist Church during its 17th annual Clergy Appreciation Luncheon.
Dowagiac Mayor Donald Lyons and Cass County Board of Commissioners Chairman Robert Wagel presented proclamations praising Civitan.
Honored clergy and guests included: Pastor Claudette Haney of Cassopolis United Methodist Church, who is retiring to Arizona in June, and her secretary, Nichole Johnson; Pastor Doug Cuthbert of Sister Lakes Community Church; Pastor Jeff Reese of Hope United Methodist Church, Edwardsburg; Pastor Patricia Haas of Pokagon United Methodist Church; Pastor Bill Doubblestein of First United Methodist Church and secretary Linda Nelson; Father Leo Taubitz of Holy Maternity of Mary Catholic Church and secretary Patti Mather; Pastor Jeffrey Frantz of Federated Church and secretary Elaine Bayles; Pastor Dennis Shufelt of First Christian Church; Pastor Kyle Gardner of Niles; Rai Anne Franco, St. Paul's Episcopal Church secretary for 11 years; and Pastor Carole Vander Linden of Christian UCC in Sawyer. She is also retiring.
A special guest in attendance Wednesday was North Central District Gov. Marlene Dean-Doran of Wayne, who belongs to Civitan's Westland club in the Detroit area.
The North Central District encompasses six states - Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa.
Pokagon United Methodist Church's five youth organized a rockathon which raised $900 for tsunami relief.
Sister Lakes Community Church, adjusting to its new family center opened last year, hired an administrator to assist Pastor Cuthbert.
St. Paul's hosts three Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and two Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings each week.
Church members will be leaving again Feb. 11 for Haiti. A soup luncheon raised $438 for tsunami relief.
Franco, who is Cass County Habitat for Humanity vice president, noted there will be a house built here on Clinton Street during President Carter's Benton Harbor visit.
St. Paul's also began "Blankets for Babies" to have a ministry for older, homebound parishioners to contribute.
Each young child entering foster care receives a handmade blanket.
Holy Maternity and First United Methodist are both gearing up for Lent with Ash Wednesday approaching Feb. 9.
Methodists will be screening "The Passion of the Christ."
The Federated Church has begun a series of retreats related to its congregation's "rediscovery of God's call," including growing the youth fellowship group.
Pastor Shufelt grew up in the neighborhood of Telegraph and McOmber streets, where he earned the nickname "Dennis the Menace." Food pantry coordinator Lillian Eastman also lived in that neighborhood. He said seeing the groceries flowing in and out is "really a blessing."
First Christian has also developed a late summer ministry providing back-to-school supplies. Church members mentor at nearby Justus Gage Elementary School and adopted 100 families at Christmas time.
Pastor Shufelt, a former Lawton High School principal, is also personally excited because his brother, who owns Twistees, is going to be getting baptized. His wife Anita volunteers at the pregnancy care center in Niles.
March will bring the fourth anniversary of Jubilee Ministries, the kinesthetic worship service for developmentally disabled citizens.
Clergy Appreciation Week coincides with a World War tragedy.
Sixty-two years ago today, on Feb. 3, 1943, a torpedoed troop transport sank off Greenland, taking 675 men, including four chaplains, to watery graves.
Alexander D. Goode of Washington, D.C., John P. Washington of Newark, N.J., George L. Fox of Vermont and Clark V. Poling of Schenectady, N.Y., went down with the ship because they gave their life jackets to soldiers.
With utter disregard for themselves, they stood hand-in-hand, praying for the men leaving the foundering ship.
A little girl was born to Betty Poling after the Dorchester sank.
In recognition of their sacrifice, and in honor of what clergy do for all people, the Albuquerque, N.M., Breakfast Civitan Club in the mid-1960s set aside the week of Feb. 3 to honor and to show appreciation to clergy of all faiths.
Communities around the world adopted Civitan's Clergy Appreciation Week as a time to recognize their role in creating a better world citizenry.