St. Michael, Delta

Address: 628 Meeker St., Delta, CO 81416-1923
Office hours: Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.

Phone: 970 874-3300 * Fax: 970 874-4015 * Email: stmichaels@kaycee.net Website: www.kaycee.net/sm/smhome.html

Administrator: Rev. Henry Emeka Aguwa

Summer Mass Schedule: Saturday: 5:30 p.m.; Sundays: 10:30 a.m. (English) & 12 noon (Spanish) * Holidays: 7:00 p.m.
Weekdays: Wednesday - Friday 8:00 a.m.

Winter Mass Schedule: Same as summer schedule.

Mission: St. Philip Benizi, Cedaredge

Our mission...

We, a faithful people, constitute a loving community under the guidance of the Bishop and Pastor - joining together to worship, serve, educate, and commit ourselves to others, as Christ invites us to teach on a day to day basis. St. Michael's Parish is a concrete expression in Delta of the universal Roman Catholic Church. Every member of the parish shares through Baptism in the priesthood of Christ and so is a representative in the task of spreading the good news, in supporting one another and all those in need, in education, in worship, in thanksgiving, in taking responsibility for the continuation of our Catholic life. Our constant challenge is to make St. Michael's Parish an over flowing center of worship, community life, and spirit that truly reflects the Church of the Diocese of Pueblo.

STAFF

Rev. Henry Emeka Aguwa, Administrator

Nicholas Larkin IV, Liturgy

Dottie Meehan, Music Director

Loretta Brattain, Parish Pastoral Council President

Coetta Hassell, Bookkeeper/Secretary

HISTORY

St. Michael’s Parish serves the city of Delta and residents in the surrounding rural area for a radius of around eleven miles. Delta is located on the Western Slope, in the Uncompahgre Valley. The valley’s primary industries are agriculture, ranching and mining. Every year between April and November, the valley attracts some 9,000 migrant workers, mostly from Mexico. This influx of people has a large impact on the area. Thanks to the Guadalupana Missionaries of the Holy Spirit, the migrant population has someone to minister to them in their native tongue.

Delta’s Catholic parish began as a mission of the Montrose parish. The current church structure was completed in 1910, constructed of bricks made in Delta at the local brickyard. Total cost for the project was $10,000. In 1911, St. Michael became a self-supporting parish and was assigned its first pastor, Fr. Nicholas Bertrand. Fr. Bertrand was a German linguist and was skilled in a number of different languages. It was this aspect that helped unify the thirty-five families into a community of worshippers. (Currently the congregation numbers approximately 600).

The parish built a school on nearby property in the 1920s. The school closed during the Depression but reopened in 1946. The school remained in operation for thirty-six years until it was closed due to lack of support and resources. Today the building is used by the church for classrooms and as a meeting area.

In 1975, the first parish council was elected at St. Michael’s, thereby affording laymen and women a greater voice in the administration of the parish, as well as involving them more deeply in decision making and in organizing church activities.

The parish has grown in number over the years, requiring many changes and improvements in the parish plant. A hall, gymnasium, kitchen, social room and staff offices were built in the 1970s to help with the increasing needs and activities in the community. The church was enlarged in 1991 to include a new sanctuary, sacristy and cry room. This allowed for additional seating of about ninety people, and provided for the expansion of seating into the hall when necessary. In 1996, a new stained glass window was commissioned from nearby Crawford to be placed above the new altar: the design is titled, “Creation.” In addition to the many structural changes, St. Michael’s has instituted a weekly Spanish mass to better minister to the growing Spanish-speaking community. All of these improvements were implemented with the future needs of the faithful community in mind.