BOTKINS — The Petersburg Parishes will present a mission with the Rev. Jeff Cooper titled, “Annunciations: Encountering Christ Anew in Advent,” on Sunday, Nov. 29, through Tuesday, Dec. 1, at 7 p.m. each evening in Immaculate Conception Church, North Main Street, Botkins.
All are welcome to attend what promise to be inspiring evenings, event organizers said. Each program will last approximately one hour and will be followed by a time of fellowship. (Attendance at all three evenings is not required.)
Focusing on Pope Francis’ call to for all Christians to live a mysticism of encounter and thereby cultivate a culture of encounter, this retreat will invite participants into reflection about how, in this Advent season, they might encounter Christ anew through the process of encountering each other, and respond to God’s “annunciations” in their own lives today.
Cooper earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master of Divinity from the University of Notre Dame and a Master of Art in composition and rhetoric from Miami University. He holds a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. Cooper came to the University of Portland in Oregon in 2011. He is an assistant professor in the Theology Department.
Cooper’s areas of academic interest include Medieval Christian Mysticism, Biblical Spirituality, the history of Christian Spirituality, the thought of Thomas Merton, and Islam/Sufism. He has served as an associate pastor in California, the assistant novice master for Holy Cross at the Novitiate in Colorado, and as a chaplain to the Holy Cross Sisters at Notre Dame. Cooper is a certified spiritual director.
The Petersburg Parishes of Botkins Immaculate Conception, Fryburg St. John, Rhine St. Lawrence, and Wapakoneta St. Joseph are named for the now-vanished Petersburg settlement (between Wapakoneta and Botkins on Santa Fe-New Knoxville Road) from which the parishes emerged in the 19th century. They are served by pastor, the Rev. Patrick Sloneker, and assistant pastor, the Rev. Daniel Hunt.
Speaking about his Petersburg connection, Cooper said, “Immaculate Conception, of course, has had a huge impact both on my faith formation growing up and my vocation to religious life and priesthood, but I was actually baptized at St. Joseph in Wapakoneta, as my parents (Gary and Shirley Cooper) lived just down a few blocks on Pearl Street in 1964 before moving back to Botkins and Immaculate Conception where my mom had grown up. Dad grew up in Fryburg and graduated from St. Joseph High School. I spent many summer Sundays as a kid at Mass at St. John with my Grandma Cooper and many Sunday nights with her playing bingo at St. Lawrence in Rhine. I was ‘St. Petersburgerized’ from the beginning, you could say!”
Cooper’s mission is the finale of the 150th anniversary celebrations for Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Parish. The anniversary committee hopes that the mission will be a fitting way for participants to move forward in the new church year and in their lives as the people of God.
For more information, contact Rachel Barber at 419-738-4924.
