KIOWA — More than a year of hard work culminated Sunday Nov. 26 with the celebration of the rededication of St. John the Apostle Church in this Barber County community.

The event also included the consecration of the new altar.

Parishioners past and present, their family and friends, gathered at the newly renovated church for a Mass celebrated by Bishop Ronald M. Gilmore and Father John Strasser, pastor, and a dinner reception in the Knights of Columbus Hall.

Among those gathered was Elizabeth Terry, at 92 the oldest parishioner, and Bob Graves, a Hardtner, Kan. resident who recounted the story of his mother, Agnes, who, with her brothers and sisters used to ride in the back of her parents’ buggy from Cherokee, Okla. to attend the then monthly Mass.

"They’d come across the great Salt Plains; she sat on the back of the buggy," Bob said, as his wife, Pat sat at his side. "They came up every month to attend Mass. She was born in 1898, so it would have been the early 1900s. It was about 30 miles, so I always suspected they spent the night, although I might be wrong. Her dad was a farmer. They came from Lawrence, Neb."

A century after the young Agnes traveled by horse and buggy 30 miles to worship at what was then a frame church, the interior of the newer church, built in 1949, sparkled once again like new, with nearly every part of the worship area either replaced or refurbished.

Wichita artist Cassian Heath was one of those enjoying a fine roast beef dinner after Mass. Heath was responsible for creating many of the new furnishings in the church, including, among others, the altar, ambo, cross, candle holders, tabernacle shelf, statue shelf, and cantor’s stand.

According to parishioners Glenna and Melvin Reif, the interior of the church was basically "gutted," with the false ceiling being removed, and only the support beams remaining. The church received new windows, doors and refinished pews. One of the more daunting tasks, Glenna said, was carrying a large marble slab into the church, which is now a backdrop for the crucifix.

Many of those in attendance, including Melvin Reif and Enid, Okla. residents Gene and May Becker, were among those who took part in an earlier renovation in the late 1960s.

At the dinner reception, Father Strasser told those gathered that when he stepped into the church for the first time, his immediate impression was, "My gosh, this has to change!

"Thank you for remaining the same," he said amid laughter, "and thank you for changing the Church!"

During his homily, Bishop Ronald Gilmore compared the dwelling place that is the church, to the dwelling place that is Jesus Christ.

"In Jewish thought, the Temple was the dwelling place of God, with all its complex worship," Bishop Gilmore said. "Jesus is saying there is now another dwelling place of God, the real and permanent dwelling place, of which this Temple is but an image. Jesus is saying he is that dwelling place, and that we shall worship God in spirit and in truth in and through him.

"Ultimately the theological meaning of the temple in the New Testament derives from this saying of Jesus which identifies his body with the new temple. His body in turn is identified with the Church.

"St. Paul spells out the implications for us. As members of the household of God, we form a building that rises on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. Through and in Jesus, this whole structure is slowly fitted together, slowly becomes a holy temple. Through and in Jesus, we are being built into this temple. Why? So that we might become a dwelling place for God in the Spirit. Jesus is the dwelling place. We are members of his body. We are the dwelling place.

"So do not be sad this day, and do not weep: this day is holy to the Lord. Rejoice today at your own cleansed temple. Rejoice today at this work of your hands, this rejuvenation of your parish, this anchoring of the whole Kiowa community. Rejoice at the new dispensation Jesus started, and give yourselves to it unreservedly.