Pastor: Rev. Patrick Toner
Saturday (30 July)
This weekend I drove from Louisville to Plain City, Ohio, a small farming community about forty miles west of Columbus. The pastor was on vacation, taking advantage of my being available, so I had one mass on Saturday afternoon and three on Sunday morning.
The church is quite small--that is why they have four masses for a congregation that is not very large--but it has been remodeled and decorated very tastefully. There will be a ground breaking ceremony in August, 2005 to begin a multi-purpose building and then a new and larger church. The new location will be on the edge of town.
I arrived in Plain City at 3:00 PM and went to the address on Perry Pike that the Maryknoll office had given me. I was a bit surprised as I was driving along Perry Pike and suddenly passed a mailbox with 6604 on it without seeing any sign of a church. Doubling back, I found a ranch-style house back among some trees, accessed by a long driveway between soybean fields. I thought maybe the parish was new and was planning to build a church on the property and was using the house for a gathering space in the meanwhile. But after waiting 45 minutes and no one showed up, I figured somethiing was wrong and I went to a local gas station and asked where St. Joseph Church was. The woman gave me directions to West Street, about a mile away, and I found the church and Jim Butler waiting for me outside of it. The mass wasn't till 4:30 PM so I still had time to put the Maryknoll brochures in the pews and get things set up.
Then after mass Jim and his wife Gloria took me to a third location, a condo where the pastor lives and where I was to spend the night. After dropping off my stuff, the Butlers then took me to supper and a short tour of the area. I had not realized it but the area is heavily Amish. We ate in an Amish restaurant and passed several Mennonite churches during the tour.
Sunday (31 July)
Sunday morning, the first mass was at 8:30 AM. I tend to talk 3-5 minutes longer than the local priests usually do--I can get away with it because I am a visitor!--but at St. Joseph the masses were scheduled 1½ hours apart so that wasn't a problem. The number of people at each mass is also quite small so there's no parking lot congestion. I met some wonderful people at the first mass and then at the 10:00 and 11:30 AM liturgies. One family invited me to lunch but I needed to get on the road and head back to Louisville, about a 4½-hour drive, taking it easy.