The following article first appeared in the November 2000 Boost-A-Month Club Newsletter.  For more information about becoming a Boost-A-Month member, call 1-800-935-0975 or contact Father Dominic Duggins.

Father Dave Glockner—Spencer, West Virginia
Missioner Shows You Can Go ‘Home’ Again

Father Dave in his early days in West Virginia at Holy Redeemer Church.

Home is a very relative term for Glenmarians who, true to their missionary charism, find a new “home” with each assignment they receive. Yet, Father Dave Glockner has returned to a familiar “home” with his latest assignment as pastor of the Glenmary missions in Spencer, Grantsville and Elizabeth, W. Va.

Father Dave spent the summers of 1958-1960 in Spencer, with some of that time dedicated to helping build the present church. Then he returned to enjoy that new church as pastor from 1972-78—his first pastorate.

“I actually supervised the building of the church until it was under roof,” Father Dave explains of his seminarian summers. “The builder couldn’t read the blueprints so we acted as our own contractors.”

It was hard leaving West Virginia in 1978, he says, so being able to return to renew old friendships and make new ones has been a “blessing” in his life.

“I’ve been welcomed back by people I’ve known from my initial time here as pastor…whose first Communions and weddings and baptisms I had. Now, they have children the same age.  I’m getting to know them as well as the new parishioners.” Both he and Brother Mike Springer were welcomed officially with a potluck which was “really wonderful,” Father Dave reports.

As much as things have stayed the same, there are some changes to get used to. Changes which Father Dave is finding are very good and indicative of how the once very new parish communities have matured over the years.

One such change concerns meetings. When he last held meetings for the Spencer parish, they were held in the rectory. Now, after renovation of the church and a building project completed last year under the leadership of Father Don Tranel, there are meeting rooms and classrooms to use.

Despite all the positives he sees, he realizes also that  “there are still a large number of unchurched in these three counties.” It was attempting to reach the unchurched that originally lead to the formation of the Grantsville and Elizabeth communities as missions of Spencer.

Father Dave began saying Mass in Grantsville located in neighboring Calhoun County (an area where only three Catholics were known to live) in 1974. The community started out meeting regularly in a trailer, then moved to a doctor’s office and then to a hospital chapel.

Today, 12 to 15 families gather for worship in a renovated house.

Two years later, the St. Elizabeth Catholic Community was formed in Elizabeth under Father Dave’s guidance with five families attending the first Masses. Today, that Wirt County community has grown to about 25 families.

“It’s good to see that these communities, while not showing a huge amount of growth, are making wonderful contributions to the surrounding communities,” Father Dave says. “The church is very active in all three counties.”

Like all Glenmary missionaries, Father Dave has made an effort to become involved in programs which help meet the needs of the larger community, or to start programs to meet those needs. During his first pastorate in West Virginia he started a home-repair program as well as a job-training program for the mentally, physically or emotionally handicapped.

While those programs no longer exist, he hopes to continue to work in meeting housing needs in some form or another. And after getting a little more settled into present-day Roane, Calhoun and Wirt counties, he will look for other ways to address unmet needs that surface.

“As I am approaching 65, it’s a great help to come back to an area I’m already familiar with,” he says. “I also have a knowledge of the state, the geography, the Appalachian culture.” Father Dave has spent the majority of his ministry within the Appalachian region—a culture to which he has been connected to since his childhood in Portsmouth, Ohio.

Today, it seems as if his ministry has come full circle, returning to where he officially began. He could, in theory, receive senior member status while in West Virginia.

It’s way to soon to talk about that (“retirement”), he says.

“There is much to be done and many good people to minister to here in West Virginia,” he explains. “It’s just really terrific to be here.”

Father Dave has come “home.” 

Father Dave moved to a new area of West Virginia in April 2003. He now pastors three Glenmary missions from his base in Logan, W. Va.