St. William Church in Paoli, part of Divine Mercy Pastorate, recently held an Apple Cider Sunday, just as Wisconsin’s apple season took full swing.
Parishioners gathered on the church’s front steps to press locally grown apples, eat apple cider donuts, and socialize as a congregation after the church’s Sunday 7:30 a.m. Mass.
Although sipping on a glass of freshly pressed apple cider might not immediately come to mind for most diocesan parishioners, regular attendees of St. William have made their Apple Cider Sunday a tradition, with this year’s installment being the third in a row.
‘A better attended church’
The idea of pressing apples as an after-Mass social came from a brief conversation Jim Schroeder, a longtime parishioner of St. William, had with friends.
Schroeder had been speaking with Tom and Vicki Sarbacker, fellow parishioners, and said that the Sarbackers were “looking for more apples to squeeze” for their yearly batch.
Schroeder, who owns and operates a local apple orchard, said that he had extra apples for them and suggested that they squeeze “after church, so it becomes a bigger group,” adding that when “we decided that we would try this three years ago, it actually went quite well”.
From there, the annual apple squeeze was born, where Schroeder provides the apples, and the Sarbackers provide the apple press.
Schroeder said that for St. William, which he said is made up of around 40 families, the cider Sunday helps make them unique.
“It’s a fun activity. I tell everybody that you can go to any church and have coffee and donuts after, but to have cider and donuts is different,” he said.
It’s also a way St. William has increased its sense of community and welcomed first time visitors.
The church, located in southern Dane county, is mostly attended by farming families located in and around the unincorporated community, but Schroeder has noticed in the year “since Divine Mercy Pastorate was formed, [St. William] has become a better attended church”.
St. William’s 7:30 a.m. Sunday Mass is the earliest Sunday Mass in Divine Mercy Pastorate, which consists of St. William Church in Paoli, St. Maria Goretti Church in Madison, and St. Andrew Church in Verona.
As Mass times for the pastorate were evaluated earlier this year, Schroeder, who is a part of the pastoral council, advocated to keep St. William’s early Sunday Mass for the broader farming community.
Explaining the increased attendance, Schroeder said, “My feeling on what’s happening is that we still have our core families, but on any given Sunday, we have a lot of guests by being at 7:30 in the morning for the weekend.
“When people have things they want to do on Sunday, it’s the best game in town for an early Mass.
“As you look at the extra people at our church, every week, it’s different people.
“They might be from Belleville, they might be from Mount Horeb, they might be from St. Maria Goretti, they might be from St. Andrew.
“We get a lot of extra people; we’ve gone from 70 or 80 at our Masses to probably averaging 120 or more right now, and that difference, I think, is mostly because it’s whoever needs an early Mass.”
‘The most welcoming’
One young couple that attended the Apple Cider Sunday was Jonathan and Joy Valladares-Cormier.
Jonathan said that they’ve been parishioners of St. Andrew Church in Verona for three years since moving to the Madison area, and Joy added, saying that within the pastorate “we’ll bounce around between the three [churches]”.
Joy explained that the two will primarily attend St. Andrew because they live closest to Verona, but they’ll also visit St. Maria Goretti because “a lot of my friends, the young people, go there, so we go to see them sometimes.
“Then, at St. William, I would argue, they were the most welcoming,” Joy continued.
“The cider press was when we really got to know the community,” Joy said, and added that when she and her husband were put to work putting apples in the hopper, “That was a facilitator for conversation and community.”
It “was really lovely,” said Joy, “We went the very next weekend.”
Speaking about the day, Vicki Sarbacker said it “provides a way for us to get to know the other parishioners,” and that she remembered meeting Jonathan and Joy at the press.
“It’s a social event, and that’s what it’s become — just fun,” she said.
The fact that they “always bring extra jugs, so everybody gets to take home a jug of apple cider,” helps too, Vicki explained.
People sip on the fresh cider and have a donut, “but then, there’s always enough to hand out to people to take home,” she continued.
Parishioners and visitors of St. William can look forward to next year for fresh apple cider, but for the rural church, there’s an ongoing initiative to continue social events year-round, helping keep the church warm, welcome, and lively.