Historical chapel in Bahner lost to lightning, fire
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The ruins of St. John the Evangelist Chapel in Bahner were still smoldering when thoughts turned to finding the tabernacle and properly reverencing Christ fully present in the Most Blessed Sacrament.
“I told Bishop McKnight that we’re going to do everything we can to give proper respect, devotion, love and honor to Jesus Christ, who was with us in that fire and with us in that tabernacle and who, more importantly, is with us here this night,” said Father Joseph Corel, pastor, during an Aug. 1 Eucharistic holy hour in the nearby St. John the Evangelist Community Center.
The steeple of the 142-year-old chapel, where generations of parishioners had encountered Christ in the sacraments, was struck by lightning during a thunderstorm early that morning.
The flames quickly engulfed the wooden structure, rendering it and its contents a total loss.
No one was injured.
The sacrament records were not damaged.
In the aftermath, people driving and walking by on Highway V in Bahner, 19 miles southeast of Sedalia, stopped and stared, trying to wrap their minds around what was no longer there.
“Memories. So many memories,” said Randy Klein, a member of St. Vincent de Paul Parish of Pettis County, of which the former Mission of St. John the Evangelist became a part in 2019.
“It’s like losing a member of the family,” said parishioner Michael Bahner, after whose ancestors the town had been named.
Yet, in the manner of the chapel itself, the fire inside the faithful simply would not go out.
“All day and especially tonight at the Holy Hour, the people of the parish in the midst of their grief and mourning were showing powerful signs of faith,” said Fr. Corel.
Parishioner Liz Kehl heard from a friend about the fire’s destruction and drove by with three of her children to see for herself.
Sarah, her second-oldest, was astonished to recall receiving her First Holy Communion in the chapel exactly three years previously.
“I was silent,” said Mrs. Kehl, “a little bit detached, thinking, ‘Maybe I’ll wake up and the church will still be here.’”
“The good Lord has other plans for us,” Mr. Bahner’s wife, Mary, noted.
The Bahners’ son, Micah, has been organist at the chapel for 21 years.
Their daughter, Maria Embry, married her husband there last year — following in the footsteps her parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents had made on their wedding days.
Looking around, Mr. Klein pointed out the various sizes of square-shaped nails that were still attached to the charred beams.
“They’ve got a better grip than a round nail,” he noted.
His daughter, April (Klein) Pilant, said the chapel had changed very little since she was a child.
She recalled arguing with friends over who would get to carry which figures to the creche in the sanctuary each Christmas.
But first, the men of the parish had to retrieve the figures from the choir loft, lowering each piece with a rope.
“Now, it’s all gone,” she said, her voice trailing off. “It feels kind of like a funeral.”
Parishioner Don Klein expressed a combination of grief and relief.
“It would have been a lot worse if anyone had been inside,” he said.
“Holy darkness”
Parishioners and visitors filled the Community Center that evening for a Holy Hour with Exposition and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Together, they sang hymns expressing hope, trust and reverence.
Fr. Corel cautioned against allowing the natural emotions of anger, frustration and sadness to bring division to the community.
“Remember, we’re all on the same team,” he stated. “The devil wants to separate and divide us. He wants to make us angry and point fingers at each other.
“We need to keep heading in the same direction, together,” he insisted. “We’re listening, grieving, processing, trying to make as much sense of this as we can.
“We will continue to persevere, the way we have been doing for generations,” he stated.
Nonetheless, he acknowledged that the people probably had more questions than he had answers.
“It’s natural in a time like this to want answers about the future, but tonight is too soon for that,” he said.
“We’re taking care of our grief, our mourning, attending to what was, and sharing stories of all the things that happened in this beautiful, sacred place,” he stated.
“We are still bleeding and assessing our damage in the field,” he said. “We have not even gotten ourselves to the hospital to know what the prognosis is, to know about recovery.”
Fr. Corel said he had been in contact with Brad Copeland, diocesan director of buildings and properties, as well as the company that insures the diocese.
He had spoken to Bishop W. Shawn McKnight, who was attending an international Knights of Columbus gathering in Florida, as well as Monsignor Robert A. Kurwicki, vicar general, and others in the diocesan Chancery offices.
Administrative matters were being attended to.
“So, let’s just sit with the reality of tonight; let’s sit with the reality of what happened this morning, and then begin to ask what the Lord is calling us to do as a community, knowing that He leads and guides us,” the pastor stated.
He turned the focus back to the Eucharist.
“The Lord is here with us tonight, just as he is every time we gather for Mass,” Fr. Corel noted.
“He gives himself totally to us. Let us give him our very selves tonight, and place all of this in his hands.”
Fr. Corel referred to the song that was to be sung next during the Holy Hour.
“Hopefully, it captures what we’re feeling but also gives us great hope that God will provide,” he said.
The song is titled, “Holy Darkness.”
Historically resilient
Bishop McKnight said that the flames may have consumed the physical structure of St. John the Evangelist Chapel, “but they cannot destroy the spirit and resilience that have defined the chapel community of St. John in St. Vincent de Paul Parish for years.
“We must remember that a church is not just a physical building,” he stated. “It is the people who gather within its walls.”
He noted that the members of St. Vincent de Paul Parish — created by joining the two former Sedalia parishes and the former Bahner mission together — “now belong to a wider group of parishioners for the benefit of all.”
“Now, more than ever, the support of this community is needed to carry each other through this challenging chapter,” he said.
Father Cesar Anicama, associate pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Parish, recalled offering Mass in the chapel just a few days before it burned.
“For me as a priest, it was a blessing and an honor to celebrate the last Holy Mass in the Chapel of St. John,” he said. “Together, we lifted our voices in the presence of one another.”
He said he’s grateful that the fire resulted in no loss of life.
“What’s very important to remember, especially now,” he added, “is that we all are the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We are the Catholic Church, the living stones. And our faith in God is still stronger than before.
St. John the Evangelist was founded by nine Catholic families from what is now Germany, who settled around present-day Bahner in 1837.
They gathered in each other’s homes each Sunday for prayer and religious instruction.
Jesuit Father Ferdinand Helias, now known as the Apostle of Central Missouri, became the first priest to visit the community and offer Mass there.
Other horseback missionaries visited from time-to-time, including Father H. Plarrer, who came frequently from Jefferson City.
The community had grown to 18 families by 1848, prompting the construction of a simple church building in nearby Lake Creek Township.
A second, larger church — the one that was recently lost — was built in 1881 while Precious Blood Father Andreas Gietl was pastor.
It became the mother church for what is now Sacred Heart Chapel in Sedalia.
In recent years, weekend Masses at St. John have been offered on Saturday evenings. Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament has been held every Wednesday.
“The people here work hard and take you in and make you part of the community,” said Michael Bahner.
“I hope that’s not going to be lost” after the fire, he said. “It would be a tragedy for people never to get to experience the kind of camaraderie we have.”
Deacon Turf Martin grew up in Pettis County and moved back to the area with his wife, JoAnn, 21 years ago.
“It’s a community that has rekindled its fire,” he said of the people, not the chapel.
“It has become very close-knit and open to strangers and to people moving in from out of town,” he said. “That means we’re still growing. You still hear babies crying out in the congregation.”
Mrs. Martin said her prayer now is “that our strong sense of community will be able to remain intact.”
“Of all of the parishes I have been a part of, I have never felt the level of true caring, faith and community that I have felt here at St. John,” she stated.
