Geneva's St. Peter begins yearlong celebration

The parishioners of St. Peter Catholic Church are kicking off a yearlong celebration leading up to their centennial at 3:30 p.m. Saturday with a Eucharistic Procession, the first of many events commemorating 100 years in Geneva.

The Procession, which begins at the church's original Fifth and James streets location and ends at its current Kaneville Road site, will consist of solemn prayers and hymns, culminating in a 4:30 p.m. Mass with an ice cream social to follow.

The yearlong celebration is a buildup to the 100-year anniversary of when the church's original 125 members held their first Mass as a new congregation in July 1911. That Mass was held at a Unitarian Church, and then the members temporarily rented space from the Swedish Methodist Church before starting construction on the first St. Peter Church in 1912. The parish moved to its current home in 1959.

Up to 5,000 Catholics weekly attend services at St. Peter with Pastor Martins Emeh.

Church patrons pride themselves on providing a welcoming environment, something not lost on Geneva's Art Kaindl, who found St. Peter to be the right fit for him and his family.

"We chose to move to Geneva and the next Sunday came to Mass," said Kaindl, now a 25-year member of the church. "We looked at the parish and the pastor. It was just a wonderful place to settle."

Emeh, from Nigeria, was ordained in 2002 and has been pastor for one year. His first visit to St. Peter, though, was on a tour in 1998, and he had no idea he would later be assigned to the church.

"My first visit was a wonderful experience," he said. "When I came back I had a renewed sense of enthusiasm and love for the parish. There's something about the vitality of the place."

Through the years, the attendees of St. Peter have dedicated themselves to giving and providing for the community through the institution of the food pantry, the friendship garden and the barn sales, where people can get needed goods for low prices. And 25 percent of what the church makes is given away, according to Communications Coordinator Rama Canney.

"The overall traits of our parish are charity and outreach," said Dick Jaeger of Geneva, an 82-year St. Peter churchgoer.

Other events spread out over the yearlong celebration of church history will be a charitable giving program, a 5K walk/run and a church history and family photo book. The special events will conclude in July 2011 at the end of the centennial year.

As church members embrace their history and look forward to the year of celebration, they aim to keep some aspects of St. Peter's the same, according to Mary Jaeger, a 75-year member.

"People can come in off the street, and we will take them in," she said.