Catholics dedicate new addition and prayer garden

Catholics gathered in the new prayer garden at St. Edward's.

Last week, Saint Edward's Catholic Church in Sisters dedicated a much-needed addition to its main sanctuary.

Fueled, in part, by the popular oratory of Father Tom Faucher, the little church at the western edge of town has been bursting at the seams for the last several years.

Starting in 1963, with just 24 families from Sisters and Camp Sherman, membership has grown to nearly 200 families.

On any given Sunday, the size of the congregation is approximately doubled by visitors from out of town.

On Friday night, November 2, the church formally opened the new wing that will help alleviate the friendly crush of worshippers.

In a more unusual move, however, the church has created an enclosed prayer garden, which was also dedicated at the evening prayer service. The garden, visible through a glass wall on the west side of the newly enlarged church, is dedicated to a little-known Welsh saint by the name of Winefride.

In a ceremony conducted by Bishop Robert Vasa, head of the Diocese of Baker, water from Saint Winifride's Well at Holywell in Wales was mingled with that of the waterfall in the new prayer garden.

The new garden and redesigned church draw attention to various "saints" of the Church.

In fact, the supporting pillars of the addition and garden atrium are fashioned from pine logs carved in the images of 34 saints who are patrons of the individual church parishes in the Diocese of Baker.

The Diocese is made up of Oregon parishes on the east side of the Cascade Mountains, and is now headquartered in Bend.

The homily for the service was delivered by Monsignor Matthew Crotty, who pointed out that the Church's view of saints is often misunderstood.

As a result, he took care to describe the relationship of the church to the saints whose life-size images peer out from the sculptures that now fill the remodeled church.

"Some people have the mistaken impression that we worship these images," said Monsignor Crotty. "Of course, that's not true. Rather, we celebrate their lives as examples for us today."

Catholics might ask the saints to pray or intercede for specific concerns; but they do not pray "to" saints.

Saints are not limited to those officially recognized by the church and are considered to include family and friends -- members of the church community -- who have "gone before."

Bishop Vasa suggested that the log saints are both figurative and literal "pillars" of the church and referred to the church's members as the saints and pillars of today's church.

The saintly images were carved by Sisters artist, J. Chester "Skip" Armstrong.

Father Faucher explained that artistic beauty in churches can help communicate in a spiritual sense.

The garden contains a variety of native and exotic flowers, shrubs and trees surrounding a water feature that includes a seven-foot rock waterfall.

The garden is enclosed by a series of fourteen iron grills and gates fashioned by Sisters iron artist Jeff Wester. Wester's work also includes 34 iron candle sconces on the stone walls surrounding the garden.

The iron gates have been designed to accommodate stained glass windows depicting the 14 stations of the Risen Christ.

The windows were designed by Sisters resident Barbara Walter.

In his closing remarks after the dedication, Bishop Vasa noted that each of the saints represented in the carved logs is oriented so as to look upon the altar.

"In this manner," he said, "they are reminding us that the beauty of the church and these images are not what we are here to see.

"Instead, they should remind us to fix our eyes where their gaze is fixed."