Interior of St. Peter in Ukiah
Name of Church St. Peter Eastern Catholic Church
Address 190 Orr Street, Ukiah, CA 95482
Phone number (707) 468-4348
St. Peter Ukiah, exterior
Website www.saintpeterukiah.com
Facebook www.facebook.com/saintpeterukiah/
Mass times Divine Liturgy is Saturday at 8 a.m. with Great Vespers at 5:30 p.m. Sundays at 9 a.m. with Matins at 7:30 a.m. (with potluck). Daily and festal services vary; see the service schedule on the website. For a sample of the Divine Liturgy, watch the 2018 Matins, Procession and Divine Liturgy of Pascha (Easter) here. Also view Great Vespers with Bishop Benedict here. For other St. Peter videos, visit https://saintpeterukiah.com/home/media/.
Confessions following Great Vespers on Saturday evenings
Names of priests Fr. David Anderson
Interior of St. Peter Eastern Catholic Church
School The church is too small for a school. Religious education classes are offered as needed, but none are regularly scheduled. Many in the church homeschool their children or have them attend Latin rite parish schools.
Homilies Fr. David is a gifted speaker, a great teacher, a Scripture scholar, knowledgeable on the Fathers of the Church, both East and West, on the history of the Church and the development of the liturgy. Listen to his What We Believe series here.
Fellow parishioners A wide mix of ethnicities and ages who drive in from four counties in the Northern California area. The parish is small, with many children.
Parking Plenty
Acoustics Fine
Additional observations The church began in 1999, when many of the laity were coming to the nearby Mount Tabor Monastery in Redwood Valley (visit https://www.monksofmttabor.com/) for Divine Liturgy. (Redwood Valley is perhaps best known as the location where Jim Jones developed his People’s Temple, 1965-74, before re-locating to South America and engaging in mass suicide. Purpose Driven pastor Rick Warren also grew up in Ukiah.) It was decided that the community was large enough to establish a church. It is a parish in the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of St. Nicholas of Chicago, which is in union with Rome. The liturgy is in English, and is sung. All baptized persons may receive Communion, even babies. Communion is by tincture, or dipping the prosphoron (leavened bread) into the chalice and administering it to the faithful with a small spoon. There are many icons, which are considered windows to heaven, throughout the church.
Unfortunately, St Peter Church will be closing by mid-summer this year. Fr adavid has accepted a position at Wyoming Catholic College, and the Eparch is no longer able to support this small mission. There is one inaccuracy in your report. The Byzantine Catholic Churches follow the Orthodox practice. The bread for communion is not a “host.” It is leavened bread. Pieces of the consecrated leavened bread are placed in the chalice with the precious blood. Communicants receive both species from the priest on a spoon, including infants and children who have been baptised and chrismated.
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Those wishing to visit our church should do so soon — up through Pentecost Sunday. Services will continue for most of June, but the process of dismantling will have begun. It is a bitter sweet time for us, as we have been graced with Fr. David as our pastor for 20 years.
That is sad news. For those looking for Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgy (Mass), there are two churches in Sacramento: Saint Philip Byzantine Catholic Church and Saint George Melkite Greek-Catholic Church. Both have reverent worship and fine priests. All Catholics, and others for that matter, are welcome.