By William J. Dagendesh
Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Parish recently celebrated a half century of service to the community with a camaraderie that continues to help spread God’s word.
With its colorful dance numbers, family games and mouthwatering foodstuff, the July 23 event bore all the hallmarks of a king’s feast. First parish pastor Father Tom McCormick (1973-1976) attended the celebration, and former Pastors Father Stephen Adams (1990-2001) and Father James Spahn (2002-2013) also shared in the festivities.
OLV Pastor Father Gregg Pedersen was thrilled at the attendance and camaraderie that figured in the success of the event. “We celebrated with a Decades Dance, Family Fun Day, Mass with the Archbishop and a pulled pork lunch served by our Knights of Columbus on the weekend of July 21-23,” Father Pedersen said.
“At the Mass with the Archbishop, we honored parishioners who had been here 50 years, then 40 years, etc. We also honored Jesus and Paula Hinojosa who are the oldest married couple in our parish celebrating their 68th anniversary.”
OLV is a Catholic faith community, called by God the Father, centered in Jesus Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim God’s love and the Gospel message through word and action to everyone.
The parish has been welcoming people from all backgrounds for more than five decades. According to Father Pedersen, the parish was established officially in 1973, although Catholic families in the Windsor area had been gathering in homes and places of business in the 1950’s and 60’s with visiting priests coming to celebrate Mass for them.
Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila (left) and Our Lady of the Valley Pastor Father Gregg Pedersen (right) share a smile during the 50th anniversary Mass for OLV July 23. (Photo provided)
Father Pedersen said the parish has grown from a small-town parish of less than 100 families in the 1970’s to more than 2,000 families today. The evangelization efforts are mostly through small group offerings each semester, he said. This fall, the parish has 22 different offerings of classes and small groups that adults can attend to learn and strengthen their faith.
“As a member of the parish family, you will find many opportunities to learn, grow, give and celebrate,” Father Pedersen said. “We are blessed to have parish missionaries through FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students) who disciple our parishioners with the hope of multiplying disciples within our parish so that our evangelization grows in a bigger way.
“We sponsor an outreach ministry called “Mary’s Cradle” that serves families by providing diapers, formula, and clothing,” he continued. “We house the only Catholic high school in northern Colorado, St. John Paul II High School, while they are raising funds to build their own facility.”
Also, Father Pedersen offers monthly healing services with a healing prayer team in attendance to pray for all those seeking physical and/or emotional healing. Other than building a church quick enough to handle the congregational growth, the parish hasn’t had to overcome any major obstacles, he said. And that growth, he said, has paid dividends.
“The growth has been amazing over the past 20 years. The multi-purpose building was built in 2000 and was soon outgrown. The generous support of the parishioners to build the new Church in 2011 and then add the classrooms, Parish Hall, and Chapel in 2018 is a wonderful sign of how we have been blessed,” Father Pedersen said. “The Windsor/northern Colorado is growing rapidly so we anticipate the church membership to continue to grow.”
Marie Parent, 85, joined the parish when she, her husband and their two sons relocated from Windsor in August 1973.
“We met some people at a food booth at Windsor Lake and found out that Mass was being celebrated by a priest, Father Roca, at the second floor over the dry cleaners — no Catholic church here. Catholics in Windsor were celebrating Mass in their homes,” Parent said. “We newcomers to Windsor wanted to find a permanent place to celebrate Mass. There were people arriving here from different states and the goal was to find a place for us to purchase to have our own place.”
Store front property became available to rent and then purchase, and the men began remodeling sections of the property. The single-story portion was turned into the church where Mass was celebrated, and the large area made into a kitchen. Some of the class rooms were refurbished meetings and dinners. Volunteers performed all the work, she said.
“It is amazing the talent people have. We had dinners to meet new arrivals and had Christmas bazaars to sell items created by parishioners and our biggest venture was the Harvest Festival each year. We had groups of people making the Mexican foods and krautburgers. It was such a wonderful experience, learning new things from each other,” Parent said.
Parishioner Jim Piraino said the parish continues to reach an amazing level of parishioner and community service under Father Pedersen’s leadership.
“People from all over the area and as far as the Western Slope have attended our Healing Prayer Team services. Father Gregg formed the ministry six years ago. I have been a member for six of those years,” Piraino said. “Miracles are many. A man with a 30-year hearing loss in one ear attended a service. His hearing was completely restored at the service. Breast cancers healed, brain aneurysms disappear, other types of cancer, heart conditions…”
“In my 75 years I have not seen a parish as vibrant and well attended in all aspects, from the liturgy to the many offerings of small groups and ministries,” Piraino added.
To learn more about Our Lady of the Valley, visit ourladyofthevalley.net.