Church #39 - St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Exeter

This is definitely the most distinctive church I've been to so far, and I had a great experience here last Sunday. It started as a mission church, an offshoot of St. Bernard in North Kingstown, about 30 years ago. It consisted of a farmhouse and six families. Since then it's grown into a full parish of its own, albeit the smallest one I've come across. The parish has a clear calling card, which is its small, family atmosphere; everyone knows everyone, and I stuck out like a sore thumb as the "new guy."

The farmhouse has since been converted into a parish center. The church itself was built by parishioners by hand as an addition off the farmhouse, so it is mostly bare and simple on the inside. There are a couple of stained glass windows repurposed from elsewhere, as well as repurposed pews which still have the old school hooks on them. The tabernacle can be accessed from a side door 24 hours a day.

I'd love to know what the seating capacity of the church is. There were definitely less than 100 people at the 10am Mass, and I'm not sure the church could hold much more than that. There are a couple of video screens in the sanctuary, which were mostly used to project prayer intentions. There was a rather large and active Mass band for such a small congregation, and they sang and played basically any part of the Mass they could. Another distinctive feature of the Mass were the readings and Gospel, which were printed out on paper for everyone. They did all three readings in the same style as the Passion narrative, with a narrator, the priest in the role of God/Jesus, and the congregation speaking as the people.

The media room

As I said above, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit here. The parish community has a very different feel from almost any other because of the size. These people love their church and take good care of it. It seems to keep going financially because the pastor dumps his entire salary into keeping it running. I certainly hope they can keep growing, and that they're still here a long time from now. Like St. Rocco yesterday, I'm very excited to learn more about St. Kateri, but I'll put that off for a different post.

Pictures of St. Kateri

A St. Kateri relic