Brother Mike Springer—Chapmanville, W.Va.
Brother's Gifts Serve New Mission County

Brother Mike Springer leads a healing service at Glenmary's St. Barbara Church in Chapmanville, W.Va.

When Glenmary moves into new mission territory, a missioner initially works to evaluate the needs of the area and determine how best to serve the people—both spiritually and materially. That’s what Brother Mike Springer has been doing in Logan County, W.Va., where Glenmary assumed responsibility for parishes in three small Appalachian communities last year.

And Brother Mike is finding that his gifts fit very well with the needs he is identifying, particularly in the community of Chapmanville, where he lives and serves as a parish brother at St. Barbara Catholic Church. Father Dave Glockner, who serves as pastor for this parish as well as two others in the county, lives at St. Francis of Assisi in the county seat of Logan 12 miles away.

In some ways, Logan County is typical Glenmary mission territory. The poverty rate is twice the national average, a large percentage of the people in the region are claimed by no church, and the Catholic population is very small—even though these three Logan County parishes have a long history.

When the area’s coal mines were booming, the population of the county was much larger, and so was the number of Catholics. But in more recent years, the area has been in decline as automation in coal mining has meant a loss of jobs and a loss of Catholics. As Brother Mike reports, “It’s difficult for people to go from jobs that pay $10 an hour to ones that pay $5.50—with no benefits.”

So despite the church buildings and parish histories, Glenmary will continue to build up the Body of Christ by nurturing the Catholics, inviting the unchurched, fostering ecumenism and working for justice in this impoverished area.

Because of the lack of economic opportunity in the area, many young people leave in search of employment. Median age in Logan County is 39, according to the 2000 census; in 1990, the median age was just over 33. The aging of the community is illustrated by the fact that only four young people are enrolled in the CCD program at St. Barbara, where Brother Mike teaches the two older students.

“They say I do a pretty good job,” Brother Mike says. Although he modestly protests that he doesn’t feel qualified to teach religious education classes, much of his ministry has focused on another kind of teaching: literacy education. “Anywhere I’ve been, I’ve tried to be involved in teaching literacy,” he says. He’s now helping a Chapmanville teenager learn to read, although most of his students are usually considerably older.

But in his younger years, Brother Mike spent a lot of time working with young people. Through the years, he has coached baseball, basketball and football in various county programs. But he knew it was time to give it up, he says with a chuckle, when “it was taking me longer to get up off the field than it did to show a team how to roll out of the way of a block.”

Brother Mike eventually began turning his attention to the elderly. In 1984, he obtained a bachelor’s degree in gerontology and religious studies from Madonna University in Livonia, Mich., which has helped him develop a special awareness of the biological, psychological and social aspects of the aging process. And that is coming in handy as he works among the aging population of Chapmanville.

Brother Mike is currently working with a local group of elderly people in Chapmanville, helping them to reminisce about their lives—something he says is spiritually very valuable. “We’ll start by singing hymns,” he says. Then he asks them to share the memories triggered by those songs. “Some people talk about memories of walking to church or riding in a horse and buggy,” he says. “The hymns bring back many fond memories.”

Brother Mike is also becoming a known presence in local nursing homes. He visits the Catholics, of course, but most of the people he spends time with are not Catholic. He also is a regular at the home for adults with mental disabilities.

Brother Mike’s outreach in this new Glenmary mission area is a clear sign of the Catholic Church’s special commitment to the poor, the lonely, the vulnerable.

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