CV NEWS FEED // The little stone Catholic church in Oklahoma whose tabernacle was spared from an RF-4 tornado last week was able to hold Mass on Sunday.
On May 6, a tornado hit St. Mary’s Catholic Church and devastated the surrounding area in Barnsdall, Oklahoma. At least one person, identified as Rhonda Hayman, has been confirmed dead.
The tornado did destroy the church’s glass windows and front door entrance, but the tabernacle was unharmed, and the sanctuary candle was still lit.
Last week the community came together to clean up the debris and patch up the affected areas of the church, enabling the pastor, Fr. Emmanuel Nduka, to celebrate Sunday Mass on May 12.
Speaking with local news outlets, parishioners shared how grateful they were to be able to attend Mass at St. Mary’s after the tornado shook the community.
“People needed that time to focus,” parishioner Doreen Linder told FOX 23. “They needed that time to focus on God. And, you know, and that’s what Sunday does anyway, is that it makes us refocus, refocus our lives on God, so we can get through, so we can get through something like all this.”
Terrie Gann and her sister Frances Berg told FOX 23 that they were especially grateful to see the church was spared, because their grandfather, Hans Dahl, helped build St. Mary’s.
“To see it still standing is honestly probably one of the biggest blessings of my life,” Berg said, adding that she and her family were all baptized at the church.
Gann said that she is “[j]ust thankful. So thankful that there weren’t more lives lost. And that we’re together. This is our hometown. We love it. We love the people in it.”
Berg told news outlet 2 News Oklahoma that amid the loss and destruction that the tornado inflicted on the town, attending Sunday Mass as a community offered them hope.
“Our church made it home again with the cross still standing and just a beacon of hope for our community,” Berg said.
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