Published October 24, 2003
Stairs project helps church take an important step in Magadan
You’ve heard of spinning gold from straw. Father Michael Shields, the American priest serving in Magadan, Russia, recently learned that his adopted homeland has its own version of the colloquialism: Making a barrel of honey from a spoon of tar.
Father Shields’ lesson began with a request from Magadan city officials — the type of request the priest has learned not to ignore — that his Nativity of Jesus Parish install a set of stairs on the steep embankment next to the church.
Nativity of Jesus, the first Catholic parish ever in this east coast city, built a modest church last year on a plot of city land. When the building was finished, the city sent word that the stairs should be added, at the parish’s expense, to make it easier for people to climb the hill.
Father Shields said he and his associate pastor, fellow American Father David Means, didn’t relish the idea of adding another $5,000-$6,000 onto the cost of their church construction project. But since the steep slope could be difficult to navigate — two people broke ankles there last winter — and since the city most likely would not relent in its request anyway, they decided to turn the stairs project into an occasion to celebrate, and to evangelize.
"We prayed and said, ‘Yes,’ not knowing how or where the money would come from," Father Shields wrote in the September issue of the Anchorage Archdiocese’s Mission to Magadan newsletter.
But when construction got under way this summer, it quickly became clear that taking on the stairs project was the right decision.
People showed "amazing gratitude," some dropping off flowers at the church, others crying as they thanked Father Shields for making their lives a little easier, he wrote.
In an interview conducted last week via e-mail, Father Shields explained that the stairs are important to locals because they span a steep portion of a well-worn trail between a low-income residential complex known as the "yama" (the pit) and a main road that leads to a shopping area. Many residents of the yama don’t own cars and must walk the path whenever they go into town.
On Oct. 12 Nativity of Jesus had a blessing ceremony for what parishioners have dubbed the "friendship stairs."
About 130 people, both parishioners and the merely grateful or curious, gathered in chilly weather for the ceremony, which concluded with a procession into the church for refreshments and a tour of the new building.
"Will any of these first-time visitors to the church stay to become parishioners?" asked parishioner Galina Knol in a written reflection on the event. "No one knows, but we of the parish continue to pray for that result."
Father Shields said that parishioners will decorate the stairs in the spring, most likely painting Bible scenes and the words "Faith, Hope and Love" in order "to remind people those are the real steps to a true life of faith."
When winter comes, Father Shields said he plans to keep the stairs clear of snow and ice and to pray for the people he meets while he works.
"Evangelization with a snow shovel and a smile — why not use Earthly stairs to lead people to the heavenly way to meeting Christ and His church?" he wrote in the September newsletter.
Last week, just after the dedication event, the priest told the Anchor that the city had received so many positive comments on the stairs that it had decided to extend them — using its own money this time.
"The proletariat wins this one," Father Shields wrote.
He later added that the construction company decided to donate their labor on the project, reducing the cost to $3,100. The priest said generous donors in Anchorage covered the bill.