Open up the yellow pages to the “chu” section and prepare to be Gobsmacked. Santa Clarita has tons and tons and tons of churches. Mega churches occupying hilltops. Teeny-tiny churches that want to grow up into mega churches but meet in school MPRs or in strip malls . Medium sized churches in buildings that were different churches just a year ago. Old established churches that never change. Latin churches. Jehovah’s churches. Mormon churches. Burning Bush churches. Hell there’s even a Coptic Orthodox church in town located in an old mortuary!
Surely the diversity of the church market in Santa Clarita is impressive; the SCV Faith Index is at an all-time high and this whole subject is worthy of further study.
But verily I say unto you, the greatest of these churches is Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic church in Newhall.
Why?
For one weekend a year (just one, not too much, not too little), those Catholics in Newhall throw Puritan values to the wind and open up their grounds to the great unchurched masses (ha!) during their annual OLPH Barbecue FIESTAAAAA!
Oh sure, other churches have celebrations. As a teen, I once went to a dance at the Mormon stake center on McBean. And as a 20 something, I went to a Memorial Day picnic with an evangelical church and taught them how to use an Aerobie. I’ve been to yet other churches that celebrate with wine, and I even found another local church where the pastor smokes stogies and talks of TULIPs.
But only one SCV church allows all this to happen in one weekend -ON THE CHURCH GROUNDS- with thousands of fellow party goers.
And that’s OLPH.
Every year I’m drawn to the weekend carvinal atmosphere that injects just a bit of culture into Newhall. Beer & wine flow freely. American, Country and Mexican/Latin bands blast music throughout the evening. Children, giddy in anticipation, wait in line for the kitchy carney rides. Teens congregate and pretend the fiesta sucks though we all know they are having the time of their lives. Anglos mix in with Mexicans who mix in with Phillipinos and all are welcoming of the SCV’s newest demographic, the Koreans*. We all hang out, eat new foods, drink, dance and have a good time. Even the nuns have a smile on their face, which is no small task, believe me.
Anyway, it’s this weekend. And so if you want to swing by and see just about the only event that will get me within a few dozen feet of a church, stop by. Love, and do what you will said the great St. Augustine!
Details here.
* Oh sure, occasionally there have been arrests made during the Fiesta but, much like the Catholic Church itself, it’s just a few bad apples. You can’t let it taint the entire thing
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I am so looking forward to this, maybe I’ll see you there!
Jeff,
how did the Copper Hill behemoth get built before OLPH. OLPH has been a long time coming. Many years. What do you think of the little chapel in downtown Newhall.
I think that little chapel in OTN is pretty neat. They are heretics to Rome, however, because they reject Vatican II (1963) and continue to celebrate the mass in latin. I went by there once and all the women wear covers, the men sit on one side of the hcapel, the women on the other. THey have parishoners from all over the region. There just aren’t many traditional Latin Catholic churches left.