Photo Caption: Father Robert Spilman greets people after a July 6 Mass marking the beginning of the new Parish of the Nativity of Our Lord in Spring Valley.

By: By Jennifer Willems

SPRING VALLEY — Looking forward with hope, Catholics in this Bureau County community came together as members of the new Parish of the Nativity of Our Lord for a Mass and reception on July 6.

Acknowledging that there had been some labor pains along the way, Father Robert Spilman encouraged people at the celebration of beginning to remember that the church exists to reach out as Jesus did to a hurting world.

“We are all called to be laborers for the harvest, the harvest here in Spring Valley,” said Father Spilman, the pastor of the newly formed parish, which was formed by the merger of St. Anthony, Immaculate Conception and Sts. Peter and Paul.

“We are called to be men and women who love, who promote peace, and who care about our brothers and our sisters,” he said. “That’s what Christ came to do and that’s what we’re called to do — bring peace and love into our world and to our community.”

The cluster of parishes that met as part of the Growing in Faith Together process and voted to merge the Spring Valley parishes also included representatives from the former St. Gertrude Parish in Seatonville and St. Mary Parish in DePue. The group recommended that the DePue parish remain linked with St. Mary in Tiskilwa, according to Mary Jane Marini, who served as chair and continues to lead the implementation team.

“None of those decisions was easy,” she told The Catholic Post. In the end, “those of us on the cluster have chosen the path of our faith — that our faith is more important to us than a building.”

“Our faith can only grow and the Holy Spirit can work through us,” Marini said. “I think that’s how we made such difficult decisions and decided to move forward with our time, talents and treasures. We hope to only get better.”

ENCOMPASSING ALL
The primary worship site for The Nativity of Our Lord is the church that had been St. Anthony, while the alternate site is Immaculate Conception Church.

Marini explained that services had been suspended at Sts. Peter and Paul Church, while Immaculate Conception continued to be used for weekend and daily Masses. In addition, religious education classes take place at the former Immaculate Conception School.

The Mass schedules will remain the same for now. Liturgical ministers have served at both sites for several years and there is a joint choir.
Before any of those decisions could be made, however, the new parish needed a name. Marini said everyone was asked to submit recommendations and the top three names were St. Jude, St. Leo and The Nativity of Our Lord, with the last getting the most votes.

Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, chose that name and Marini, who has been involved at all three churches over the course of her lifetime, was delighted.

“It is the birth of a new parish. If we want to coordinate that with the birth of Christ, to me we only have room to move forward,” she said.
Father Spilman added that in a community with many ethnic influences, The Nativity of Our Lord encompasses all of them.

“It doesn’t make any difference if you’re Polish, Lithuanian, Irish, German — we celebrate the Nativity at Christmas, don’t we? Now we take that wonderful feast of Dec. 25 and make it a feast every day of our lives,” he said.

Father Spilman has encouraged parishioners to bring their unique gifts to The Nativity of Our Lord for the betterment of all. That includes the pies and baked goods the women of Sts. Peter and Paul are known for, the sausage made by the men and women of Immaculate Conception, and the raviola that celebrates the Italian heritage at St. Anthony.

Historical displays from these three parishes as well as the former St. Anne in Spring Valley and St. Gertrude in Seatonville had been set out for an ending ceremony at the end of June and remained in place for the July 6 beginning festivities.

Founded by Father John F. Power in 1884, Immaculate Conception is the oldest church in Spring Valley and became the mother church for the others. After the first church was destroyed by fire in 1917, the current church was built. The school became part of the parish landscape in 1888 but was closed in 1970.

Considered the first Polish Catholic church to be consecrated in the United States, Sts. Peter and Paul was founded in 1891. The first church, a frame building, was dedicated in 1892, replaced by the current brick building in 1909, and consecrated in 1920. The school was built in 1901 and had been used as a parish hall since 1924.

St. Anthony was founded in 1909 to serve the Italian immigrants who came to work in the area’s coal mines. Mass was celebrated in the old Immaculate Conception School building until an existing building in town could be remodeled and used for worship. The current church, rectory and parish hall were dedicated in 1971.

While those buildings have played an important role in the lives of the people, “a building didn’t come to save us,” Father Spilman said. “We’ve built on the solid rock of all of the faith in the area and now we’re going to have that new birth.”