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 Fort Jennings First Communion
In preparation of the Parish Sesquicentennial, Father Schilling requested a hand carved statue of St. Joseph the Worker, from Germany. It was presented during the parish celebration. He also requested a history of the parish, the Blue Book of 1998, which was compiled by Imogene Elwer and Judy Wieging. The parish celebrated with a dinner in March and a picnic in the park in August. In recent years Saturday evening Mass has often been celebrated in the park once a year. The number of parish families had grown to 529. The number of members of the parish declined from the 1980 high of 1975 to 1585 in 1994. Father Schelling served the parish well from 1994 to 2000.
Things really livened up in July of 2000, when Father Tony arrived in town to replace Father Schelling. His full name was Rev. Anthony Borgia. He soon became well acquainted with parishioners and loved to socialize with parish Christmas parties in the basement of the rectory.
This became a time of great change for the parish. Talk of a new church began….causing much controversy. The official announcement was made in July of 2003. Bob Heitmeyer was chosen as chairman of the building committee of several parishioners. The old church seated approximately 425 persons. The new church would have a seating capacity of 750-800. At that time about 750 people attended the week-end Masses. The committee did a great deal of traveling to see other new churches. After over 40 meetings they settled on plans that give Fort Jennings one of the most beautiful modern churches of the time.
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