Our Lady Queen of Peace
5610 S. Highway 51
Manitowish Waters, WI 54545
located in Vilas County
Phone: 715-543-8428
Email:
Year parish was established: 1958
Number of households: 75
Parochial administrator: Fr. Ron Serrao
Weekend Masses: Saturday: 5:30 p.m.; Sunday: 8 a.m.
Describe your faith community
Our Lady Queen of Peace parish serves joyfully all who come. Some of our parishioners have lived in the parish for years, but most are people who chose to spend their retirement years living in the area. The parish also serves a very large flow of seasonal and transient visitors, some of whom are third- and fourth-generation summer residents. Most of the parish’s permanent-parishioner married couples have been married 40- to 60-plus years. Mass attendance comfortably fills the church in July and August, but attendance in February and March is sparse.
“When visitors come to our parish they will …
… find a friendly welcome as most of our parishioners once came from someplace else. They will find parish Masses to be casual, informal liturgies that start and end strictly on schedule, as our priest must travel to other cluster parishes to celebrate Masses on the same day. New parishioners, whether year-round or seasonal, have an easy time becoming involved in parish liturgies and activities. The parish makes an effort to take all new parishioners to a get-acquainted dinner.”
In what way(s) does your parish proclaim the Gospel with its actions?
Although our parish is small, with approximately 75 year-round families, we engage in a variety of activities to proclaim the Gospel. The parish:
* Provides an elementary school CCD program that involves four teachers and 20 to 25 students drawn from the parish and from neighboring parishes. The program also includes a monthly children’s Mass during the school season.
* Co-sponsors with another Christian church a lighted Nativity scene on public grounds in the community.
* Engages a large percentage of our year-round and seasonal members in liturgical activities as music ministers, ministers of communion, lecturers, and servers.
* Sponsors a communal penance service followed by a soup and salad luncheon on the feast of the Assumption in which parishioners from our cluster parishes participate.
* Annually sponsors a chicken dinner to enable our parishioners and cluster parish visitors to enjoy a religious-based social gathering.
* Provides an annual appreciation dinner for parish volunteers.
With its cluster parishes, Our Lady Queen of Peace co-sponsors:
* Periodic pilgrimages to the Shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fatima, Portugal.
* A pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, tentatively scheduled for May 2017.
* Retreat/days of recollection at the Marywood Center in Arbor Vitae.
* A weekly Mass celebrated by our priest at an area nursing home.
What is something about your parish most people might not know?
Each of the nine stained glass windows in the body of the church depicts Mary, the Mother of God, as she is honored in another country/culture of the world. Depicted are:
* Our Lady of Guadalupe, Central America
* Our Lady of the Bowed Head, Austria
* Our Lady of Medjugorje, Croatia
* Our Lady of Aloetting, Germany
* Our Lady of Knock, Ireland
* Our Lady of Rose Gardens,Trim, Ireland
* Our Lady of Loreto, Italy
* Our Lady of Czestochowa, Poland
* Our Lady of Vladimir, Russia
In a 2012 National Art Glass Competition, the Liturgical Environments Company won the “The Best of Show Award” for the artistry of the windows.
