Holy Family

Beautiful, historic church built on the plains in central Kansas in 1899. The awe-inspiring church holds once-weekly Mass on Sunday at 8:00 AM. Please note, the church is not air-conditioned but it really does not present a problem, even in the heat of summer, because all of the doors and the transom windows located below the big stained glass windows in the church are opened, so you get a cross-draft, which is supplemented by table and floor fans around the entire perimeter of the pews, and with an 8:00 AM mass, you’re at the very beginning of the heat of the day. However, you would not want to have an afternoon wedding in the church during the summer.nnThe small-town church is attended by a majority of farmers and ranchers who drive in for Mass, as well as some of the few residents that live in the tiny town. People dress from very casual to more traditional church attire such as dresses and suits/ties.nnInteresting bit of trivia, the corner stone of the church states the church’s location as Nazareth, Kansas even though the church is located in the town of Odin, Kansas. An overly – ambitious and/or optimistic new priest felt he could convince the residents of the town of Odin to change the name of the town by naming the church and accompanying cemetery Nazareth. He was wrong.nnJust under a block away, the church has a Parish Center, that contains a vintage, gleaming, mid-century gymnasium with a full sized, elevated stage with green velvet curtains. The gym is the location for various events such as wedding receptions/dinners, an annual church carnival/fundraiser held close to May Day, a church-sponsored men’s basketball league with games played during the winter months, and an annual auction fundraiser for a nearby town’s fire department. The gymnasium is well-heated during the cool/cold months, but unfortunately does not have air-conditioning either.nnAnother interesting point of trivia is that the gym was not built in Odin, but was actually constructed at the Air Force Base outside the nearby town of Great Bend, Kansas as a recreational option for the airmen stationed there during WW II. At the Air Force Base, which was active from 1942 to 1946, airmen from all over the country traveled to the base to flight-train for the new B-59 bombers launched during WW II to fight in the Pacific during the war. After the war ended, and the Air Force Base was decommissioned, the church purchased the gymnasium and a dining hall, dismantled them piece-by-piece and re-assembled them in Odin in 1947. You would never know it to look at them, and many long time members of the church and residents of the town, are not aware of this interesting bit of trivia.nnAccessibility note: The gym can be accessed through the main entrance down a wide and long set of steps. The bathrooms are at the top of the steps before you go down into the gymnasium. There are two small ground-level doors on either side of the back of the gymnasium, which can be accessed from the parking area and are wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair.nnAdjacent to the gymnasium is a modernized kitchen for preparing meals for events in the Parish Center. The kitchen can be accessed from the gymnasium down a short three steps. Beyond the kitchen is the dining hall that was brought over from the Air Force Base, which can accommodate approximately 200 persons using long, six-foot tables with eight chairs per table. There is a permanently-mounted big-screen TV in the dining hall. Connected to the dining hall is the Knights of Columbus private club. The kitchen, the dining hall and the KOC club are air-conditioned.nnAccessibility note: For events held in the dining hall, it is accessed from the front of the building down two sets of narrow steps from ground level to the lower level. At the time of this review (June, 2020), the dining hall is not accessible by wheelchair or by those who cannot navigate steps. There are current plans to update this by adding a ramp, to make the dining hall accessible to all.nnSteve Schachle - Parish Administrator: 2017-2019