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Rev. Guy Blair ready to launch new ministry for the deaf in Combined Locks | postcrescent.com | Appleton Post Crescent
When the Rev. Guy Blair heads to his new parish in Combined Locks this fall, he hopes to take a good chunk of St. John’s parish with him.
Under his leadership, St. John the Evangelist in Green Bay built a successful ministry to the deaf, serving a region beyond the borders of Green Bay and Brown County, and Blair is hoping at least some of those parishioners will help him start a similar program at his new parish.
“That is our hope, hope in the good will of other people that they’ll want to get in their car and drive 30 miles down there, because right now, there are people from Menasha, Brillion and New London who are driving all the way up here,” Blair said.
Blair spoke Wednesday to the Gannett Wisconsin Media, his first public statement since the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay announced last week that he would be transferred this fall to St. Paul’s in Combined Locks.
Earlier this week, people who support Blair from St. John and other parishes held a vigil in an effort to encourage the diocese to change its decision on moving him. The pastor is popular at St. John because he started a regular Mass for the deaf five years ago and helped start a homeless shelter at the parish.
On Wednesday afternoon, about 25 mostly deaf and hard of hearing parishioners met at St. John’s to support Blair. A few parishioners met with Bishop David Ricken in the afternoon to talk about Blair’s move at the diocese offices.
“We do not agree with the bishop’s decision to move Father Blair and uproot the deaf community,” member Jean Laux said through a sign language interpreter.
However, members would continue to work with the diocese for a solution, she said. Some complained about a lack of transportation to travel to St. Paul’s in Combined Locks. Ricken agreed to meet again at a later date.
Ricken said it was a difficult decision to move Blair.
“But our faith challenges us to trust in God, that God will provide,” he said in a written statement. “We have many capable priests in our diocese so I have asked the people of St. John’s to trust that their next pastor will care for their spiritual well-being and love them as much as Fr. Blair has.
“It won’t be the same — it never is — but there is opportunity for continued spiritual growth under new leadership.”
Blair dismissed the notion he was being transferred against his will or that the move is punitive to him or unfair to his parishioners.
“I feel very sad at having to say goodbye to the church community here, because of the work we did to build up a structure of having the deaf and hearing worshipping together, understanding each other,” Blair said. “It’s two different world views, two different cultures, two different languages, but it has worked out very well.
“It’s sad that we have to dismantle that, but there’s a crisis in the Diocese of Green Bay. St. John’s is not large enough to require a full-time priest, so I’m being moved to a centrally located church in Combined Locks, with the hopes that these deaf people will move with me. … And we’ll get new members from the Valley. We’ll restructure and start the whole program over again.”
Blair’s weekly Mass for the deaf is the only one of its kind in diocese that covers 16 counties: Brown, Calumet, Door, Florence, Forest, Kewaunee, Langlade, Manitowoc, Marinette, Menominee, Oconto, Outagamie, Shawano, Waupaca, Waushara and Winnebago.
Blair celebrates the Mass simultaneously in speech and sign language. Many churches have translators for the deaf, but St. John’s is unique in that the Mass is actually done in sign language, not merely translated.
The program has helped the parish develop a sort of sub-congregation, a group of about 50 deaf parishioners, many of who travel 30 or 40 miles every week just to attend the special Mass. Deaf people do the readings in sign language, the choir signs the hymns and even the ushers are deaf.
Blair said fear of the demise of the program caused him to tell diocesan officials at first that he didn’t want to be transferred. But diocesan officials persuaded him that the priest shortage was such that it couldn’t justify having a full-time pastor assigned to St. John’s, which is just a few short blocks from two other Catholic churches, St. Francis Xavier Cathedral and St. Willebrord’s.
“(The diocese of) Green Bay has a crisis,” he said. “There are too few priests. It’s not like we’re manufacturing them.”
St. John’s serves 210 families, while St. Paul’s serves 857 families. Blair, who turns 59 on Saturday, said he felt anxious about the move and hoped “I have enough energy to take care of the needs of all those people.”
Blair called upon deaf members of his parish to “make a sacrifice the same as I must make a sacrifice, for the benefit of one another. … Please try and please help and understand and go forward with me,” he said. “We’re going to work together. Let’s support each other in the same way we supported each other at St. John’s church.”
He said a bus trip was being planned, to take deaf members of the parish to Combined Locks, to see the space and church, to encourage them helping him to build a new, centrally located program for the deaf there.
Blair said he hoped his new duties at St. Paul’s would allow him to make occasional visits to St. John’s emergency homeless shelter, which he helped start in 2005. It continues to operate seasonally in Green Bay.
He said he understands the shelter will operate just fine without him, but he plans to continue to try to help raise money for its continued operation and would like to have dinner with some of the shelter’s clients, as he has for the past four winters.
“For me, it’s a good reminder of what’s going on in the world, in real life, as opposed to the sheltered, clerical existence,” he said.
When the Rev. Guy Blair heads to his new parish in Combined Locks this fall, he hopes to take a good chunk of St. John’s parish with him.
Under his leadership, St. John the Evangelist in Green Bay built a successful ministry to the deaf, serving a region beyond the borders of Green Bay and Brown County, and Blair is hoping at least some of those parishioners will help him start a similar program at his new parish.
“That is our hope, hope in the good will of other people that they’ll want to get in their car and drive 30 miles down there, because right now, there are people from Menasha, Brillion and New London who are driving all the way up here,” Blair said.
Blair spoke Wednesday to the Gannett Wisconsin Media, his first public statement since the Catholic Diocese of Green Bay announced last week that he would be transferred this fall to St. Paul’s in Combined Locks.
Earlier this week, people who support Blair from St. John and other parishes held a vigil in an effort to encourage the diocese to change its decision on moving him. The pastor is popular at St. John because he started a regular Mass for the deaf five years ago and helped start a homeless shelter at the parish.
On Wednesday afternoon, about 25 mostly deaf and hard of hearing parishioners met at St. John’s to support Blair. A few parishioners met with Bishop David Ricken in the afternoon to talk about Blair’s move at the diocese offices.
“We do not agree with the bishop’s decision to move Father Blair and uproot the deaf community,” member Jean Laux said through a sign language interpreter.
However, members would continue to work with the diocese for a solution, she said. Some complained about a lack of transportation to travel to St. Paul’s in Combined Locks. Ricken agreed to meet again at a later date.
Ricken said it was a difficult decision to move Blair.
“But our faith challenges us to trust in God, that God will provide,” he said in a written statement. “We have many capable priests in our diocese so I have asked the people of St. John’s to trust that their next pastor will care for their spiritual well-being and love them as much as Fr. Blair has.
“It won’t be the same — it never is — but there is opportunity for continued spiritual growth under new leadership.”
Blair dismissed the notion he was being transferred against his will or that the move is punitive to him or unfair to his parishioners.
“I feel very sad at having to say goodbye to the church community here, because of the work we did to build up a structure of having the deaf and hearing worshipping together, understanding each other,” Blair said. “It’s two different world views, two different cultures, two different languages, but it has worked out very well.
“It’s sad that we have to dismantle that, but there’s a crisis in the Diocese of Green Bay. St. John’s is not large enough to require a full-time priest, so I’m being moved to a centrally located church in Combined Locks, with the hopes that these deaf people will move with me. … And we’ll get new members from the Valley. We’ll restructure and start the whole program over again.”
Blair’s weekly Mass for the deaf is the only one of its kind in diocese that covers 16 counties: Brown, Calumet, Door, Florence, Forest, Kewaunee, Langlade, Manitowoc, Marinette, Menominee, Oconto, Outagamie, Shawano, Waupaca, Waushara and Winnebago.
Blair celebrates the Mass simultaneously in speech and sign language. Many churches have translators for the deaf, but St. John’s is unique in that the Mass is actually done in sign language, not merely translated.
The program has helped the parish develop a sort of sub-congregation, a group of about 50 deaf parishioners, many of who travel 30 or 40 miles every week just to attend the special Mass. Deaf people do the readings in sign language, the choir signs the hymns and even the ushers are deaf.
Blair said fear of the demise of the program caused him to tell diocesan officials at first that he didn’t want to be transferred. But diocesan officials persuaded him that the priest shortage was such that it couldn’t justify having a full-time pastor assigned to St. John’s, which is just a few short blocks from two other Catholic churches, St. Francis Xavier Cathedral and St. Willebrord’s.
“(The diocese of) Green Bay has a crisis,” he said. “There are too few priests. It’s not like we’re manufacturing them.”
St. John’s serves 210 families, while St. Paul’s serves 857 families. Blair, who turns 59 on Saturday, said he felt anxious about the move and hoped “I have enough energy to take care of the needs of all those people.”
Blair called upon deaf members of his parish to “make a sacrifice the same as I must make a sacrifice, for the benefit of one another. … Please try and please help and understand and go forward with me,” he said. “We’re going to work together. Let’s support each other in the same way we supported each other at St. John’s church.”
He said a bus trip was being planned, to take deaf members of the parish to Combined Locks, to see the space and church, to encourage them helping him to build a new, centrally located program for the deaf there.
Blair said he hoped his new duties at St. Paul’s would allow him to make occasional visits to St. John’s emergency homeless shelter, which he helped start in 2005. It continues to operate seasonally in Green Bay.
He said he understands the shelter will operate just fine without him, but he plans to continue to try to help raise money for its continued operation and would like to have dinner with some of the shelter’s clients, as he has for the past four winters.
“For me, it’s a good reminder of what’s going on in the world, in real life, as opposed to the sheltered, clerical existence,” he said.