Church celebrates 75th year on the ridge
St. Thomas More in Paradise to hold free community concert
More than four years after the Camp Fire, the St. Thomas More Catholic Church is ready to give back to the community on which it relied to heal trauma caused by the disaster.
The church is celebrating its 75th anniversary this weekend with a community concert to practice for what it calls its “year of grace” — and with a groundbreaking for its rebuild of the Family Life Center.
Church member Chris Rehmann said the church community has been working on the celebration and towards giving back to the entire Paradise ridge community as a challenge for its members for its jubilee year.
Rehmann said the church in September 2022 was given permission to rebuild its Family Life Center, which was lost in the fire along with the church’s priest house and youth house.
He said he thought the community had turned the corner with news of the rebuild.
“It changes people’s attitudes and hearts,” Rehmann said. “We felt a different energy; we’re not just victims, we’re not survivors — we have this desire now … let’s do something.”
Parish Steward Greg Kidder said just after the Camp Fire, the church community had been split across the country and the church lost about two thirds of its parishioners.
Kidder said the church held mass in Chico while cleaning up the damage from the fire, and joined in ecumenical services with other ridge churches.
With time and help from other Christian and Catholic communities, Kidder said the church slowly rebuilt its church services including its food pantry program in partnership with First Baptist Church Paradise.
Kidder said although many of the church’s parishioners have left Paradise post fire, he is encouraged by the amount of support from people all over the ridge who show up seeking and returning to the church community.
“They believe in what we do. That kind of encouragement makes a huge impact for a community; meaning the ridge itself. They see what we do; they see we’re here and not just taking care of our own,” Kidder said.
Kidder said the church is doing many things it didn’t do before the fire, and is now ready to celebrate its 75th anniversary.
St. Thomas More Catholic Church will host its community concert free and open to the public 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25 at 767 Elliot Road. The concert will feature vocals, violin, flute including a subset of members from the Paradise Community Chorus.
The church will host a groundbreaking and consecration of its new Family Life Center after noon Mass on Sunday, Feb. 26.
The church office may be reached at 877-4501 and more information may be found at https://www.stmparadise.net.
“We’ve done a lot with very little in the last four years. We’ve gained our strength, we’re building up, people are moving back to the area. We want to be this inviting community or parish that people feel comfortable whether they’re Catholic or not, and we move forward to rebuild our ridge community,” Rehmann said.