Sister Parish: St. Joseph, Modesto, California

On February 2, 2003, the Feast of the Presentation, Bishop Jerzy Mazur officially issued the decree establishing St. Joseph parish in the Second River area of Vladivostok. On March 16, Fr. Daniel Maurer had the honor of blessing the renovated apartment where the parish chapel is located. There is, of course, no church building at the present time.

Banner from American sister parish St. Joseph adorns back wall of chapel in Second River.

Fr. Myron Effing is actually the pastor, but he was in America at the time of the blessing, visiting St. Joseph’s sister parish of St. Joseph in Modesto, California. He also had a chance to visit St. Joseph parish in Salem, Oregon, which has been supportive of our efforts for many years. St. Joseph parish in Modesto has provided nearly half the funding for the new parish apartment. The rest of the cost is currently a mortgage.

When the neighboring apartment became available in Second River, we quickly purchased it to expand the space for St. Joseph. The new area provides a kitchen and two meeting rooms. Alcoholics Anonymous and the Scouts are already using the new space. Parish teas can be held there also. The Koch Foundation provided half the funds for the new space, the rest being also a mortgage.

Parish of St. Joseph is located in this apartment building on ground level on left.

Some of faithful of new parish enjoying tea time in parish dining room after Mass. Dining room adjoins chapel and other parish rooms. Fr. Daniel is serving tea.

We hope to unite the two apartments with a new common entrance. There are no funds for this at the present time. A Women’s Support Center with a hotline to the whole city continues to operate at St. Joseph.

St. Joseph has 70 parishioners, all of whom lived farthest from their old parish of Most Holy Mother of God. They include residents of the Second River area of Vladivostok, the city of Artyom, and the suburban areas north of Vladivostok as far as the next parish, which is Nativity in Ussurisk, a two-hour drive to the north.

Three institutions of higher learning are located within the parish boundaries: the police academy, the naval academy, and a music institute. The "Thousand-Bed" hospital and several other hospitals are also within the parish boundaries, which should provide lots of volunteer opportunities for parishioners.

When we plotted the locations of parishioners' homes on a map of the city, we found that not a single parishioner lives in the high-rise apartment district called BAM. So this will be an area in which we will need to search for Catholics, who surely live here. Once there are full-time priests for St. Joseph's, they can begin to try to organize a parish in the City of Artyom itself.

Because of the finances needed to support this rapidly growing community, additional sister parishes are needed. If you are a member of a parish under the patronage of St. Joseph, might you consider being a sister parish?

Group picture after Mass. Fr. Valerie, who was in charge of transforming apartment into chapel, is to left of Fr. Daniel.