The statue of Mary of Beourainge came to be at our church in the 1980s. Fr. Powers brought her from Big Lake, but no one knows how she got to Alaska. She is one of 50 statues that were cast in thanksgiving for a miracle.
I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, a
I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
St. Phillip Catholic Church in Trapper Creek, Alaska is our mission church. It is located at Mile Post 115 on the Parks Hwy. Mass is at 11:30am on Sunday.
Over 30 years ago the members of St. Bernard parish formulated our mission statement: Feed my lambs and tend my sheep. We believe that God wrote this statement on our hearts and we have dedicated much of what we have to show God's love.
“Frank and I came to Alaska in 1935 when you could get a homestead (160 acres) in the Susitna and Matanuska valleys for little more than hard work. It was hard to go to church in those days, and we met in storefronts, tents, and homes. We had a priest but there was no Bishop in Territorial Alaska. Once our priest told me that there were people in the area that wanted to be confirmed, and wondered if I would stand in as a sponser. When the service started I was sponser for 67 people! When we moved to Talkeetna with two kids the school was a one room schoolhouse and the only way into Talkeetna was by train, plane, or riverboat. The gravel spur road was built in 1968, and it was paved in 1972. There was no Catholic Church, so we met for mass in an empty trailer that my husband and I owned. Fr. Murphy used to fly into town, land on the old airstrip, and walk over to say mass. My daughter, Dorothy, (who had kids of her own by then) and I started lobbying for a real church. We began fund raising and Don Sheldon and Lena Morrison donated the land. Fr. Stan Allie and Mr. Beech (a Big Lake contractor) built the church. Fr. Allie stayed at the Roadhouse until a double wide trailer was purchased for a rectory. Fr. Allie trained altar servers and they served not only St. Bernard’s, but flew with their priest to the two other churches in our parish; St. Christopher’s in Willow, and St. Philip in Trapper Creek. His altar servers loved to tell stories of the Alaska State Troopers giving Fr. Allie a ticket for landing on the plowed highway when he realized the runway was wing deep in snow!
Origins
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