Published February 2, 2001
Upon this rock, I will build my church
Nativity of Jesus parishioners, especially the children, are the foundation for a new church, humanitarian aid center — and religious future — in Magadan
Story by John Roscoe • Anchor Editor
MAGADAN, Russia — Most observers probably don’t even notice the snow-crusted concrete foundation that sits amid dilapidated apartment buildings in a poor section of Magadan. It sort of blends in with all the other half-built structures in this city, which saw its federal construction dollars die off with the Soviet Union 10 years ago.
But Father Michael Shields has imagination.
The shiny-eyed pastor of Nativity of Jesus Parish here sees in the foundation a solid structure that in two short years will be a dazzling new church and humanitarian aid center.
"It’s going to transform this whole area," he said last month to some visitors from Alaska, his home state. It was about 10 below zero as he hustled through the site pointing out where the front doors will be, where the altar will be, which way the windows will face.
He even has plans for the patch of dirty snow on the west side of the structure.
"A skating rink!" he shouts with such delight that one can’t help but imagine mobs of rosy-cheeked children gliding happily across the ice. "We’ll have hot chocolate and a skating rink and I’ll get them all!"
Although the Parish of the Nativity just celebrated its 10-year anniversary, the church has really started to grow in the last two to three years, say Father Shields and associate pastor Father David Means, from St. Louis. Father Shields has been pastor since 1994, and Father Means came two years later.
Part of the reason, the priests say, is that the parish has played an increasingly critical role in providing humanitarian aid to people the cash-strapped government is unable to assist.
Two winters ago, Magadan ran out of coal in the dead of winter, resulting in no heat and no light for weeks. The priests got word to Anchorage, Magadan’s sister city, and Alaskans launched a major food and clothing drive.
The parish, which was already familiar with the poorest of Magadan’s poor, distributed much of the relief — when it finally pushed through the layered Russian customs bureaucracy. The effort won the parish many supporters in the community and the local government, the priests say.
Now things are happening fast. Last year a little over 100 people came for Christmas services at Nativity of Jesus, located in a refurbished three-room apartment with seating for 75. This year, more than 300 attended. A year ago there was just one married couple with children in the parish. Now there are eight.
And the children? They’re everywhere.
A children’s Mass celebrated as part of the Jan. 13-14 anniversary weekend drew around 40 youngsters, some from a nearby orphanage the priests visit. Six children (and several adults) were baptized over the weekend.
"We’re building this new church for the future of Russia," Father Shields said after the children’s Mass. "If it were just the babushki (grandmothers), we could stay in the chapel. But we’re building for the future."
Architectural plans are for a two-level structure that will be a church with seating for 200 upstairs and a humanitarian aid center below.
It’s a fitting design, said Archbishop Francis Hurley, who founded Nativity of Jesus 10 years ago and supports it with about $100,000 per year in donations to the archdiocese’s Russian Desk.
"When you think of a new church, you think of more space for worship, education, meetings," he said. "This one has all that, but also will enable them to expand their outreach to the poor."
Serving the poor and neglected of this impoverished region has been a defining characteristic of the church from the beginning, he said.
The church and an attached chapel will be dedicated to the people who suffered and died in Joseph Stalin’s gulags. An estimated 2 million people are buried in unmarked graves in the region around Magadan, where prisoners were shipped from 1932-1954 to mine gold and other minerals. Many were imprisoned for their religious beliefs or ethnicity.
Total project costs for the new church will be between $800,000 and $1 million, which Father Shields said he plans to raise in international appeals. And even though many of his 100 parishioners live on the equivalent of $35 a month, they too have been asked to contribute, he said.
"For whatever reason, you and I have been chosen by God to be the living foundation of this new church," he told his flock last month. "We are the bridge between not having a church and having one."
He told them they could contribute through prayer, acts of mercy, and financial offerings.
For more information about the Parish of the Nativity of Jesus, contact the Archdiocese of Anchorage’s Russian Desk at 225 Cordova Street, Anchorage, AK 99501, or call (907) 297-7756.