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Many small deaths, many new starts helped create Bethany Ministries in Middleburgh, a community dedicated to prayer, proclamation and hospitality.

Anchored by a Franciscan, Rev. Peter S. Chepaitis, OFM, and Sister Anna Tantsits, IHM, the group includes about 16 local households and a larger circle of supporters. 

A smaller group meets regularly for contemplative prayer; a core group meets annually to assess the community's fidelity to living "creatively in the tension between solitude and community." 

Father Chepaitis, known to all as "Friar Peter," and Sister Anna spend half their time on the road, giving talks, retreats, missions and workshops. He lives in a modest trailer on the east bank of the Schoharie Creek off Route 30; she in an apartment in the village. 

The preaching pair has worked in Montreal, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Delaware and other states, as well as throughout the Albany Diocese. 

In a visit during Lent, they described their paths and work as a series of Good Fridays and Resurrections. 

Father Chepaitis first came to the area to share Easter dinners with Kim and Reggie Harris, the local musicians popular in many Catholic and other venues. 

He began to celebrate Holy Week services at St. Joseph's in Schoharie and decided to move to nearby Gilboa, with the blessing of the Holy Name Province of the Franciscan Order, to launch a new venture in 1995. 

Loss and gain
At the last minute, he heard that his new home would not be available. He moved temporarily into the parish house at St. Catherine's in Middleburgh and told the congregation of his plight. 

"Someone had a relative with this trailer for rent, and I moved in," he said. "It was an Easter experience." 

Similarly, Sister Anna said that, after 19 years of teaching, "I heard this little call, 'Come over here and try this.'" She decided to serve Catholics seeking a deeper spiritual experience, especially busy parents and others who could not get away for retreats. 

"I learned that you have to go to people where they are, and that you can't offer a pre-packaged thing, but you have to ask, 'What do you need?'"

She worked as a catechist in schools and parishes, often uncertain if she could earn her keep. But she plowed on in faith. 

After a sabbatical in Glens Falls and Rome, Italy, she was hired by the Albany Diocese as assistant director of adult faith formation and evangelization. That position was eliminated in 2000 and, about the same time, her mother died. 

Wondering what to do, she teamed up with Father Chepaitis. 

"It was like jumping off a cliff," he said. "But we ended the first year $1.89 in the black." Most years have been like that, with fees just covering expenses - including a remittance to their respective orders. 

Bethany people
Must of their work is done for free and their charity has inspired Bethany members and supporters to similar acts. 

They chose their name for the hometown of Martha, Mary and Lazarus. The women embody practical and the contemplative aspects to their work. And the miracle of Lazarus embodies the tension between Good Friday and Easter. 

Bethany typifies some aspects of the growing lay movements in the Catholic Church. 

The loosely affiliated households include Catholics who were seeking to anchor their lives and work in prayer and contemplation. 

Rev. Donna Joy Schmid, a retired Methodist pastor and long-time member, says the variety of the Bethany community helps their communal prayer life. "The time of being together in the Lord, and the sharing of the journey, is richer," she said. 

Once when Father Chepaitis was preaching a mission in Manhattan, a homeless woman, Rose Walker, looked in but would not enter the church since she felt unworthy. He reached out to her. Ms. Walker eventually recovered from substance abuse, attended several Bethany retreats and began preparing to receive the sacraments. 

"Then she was diagnosed with cancer, and we had to give her Baptism, Confirmation and First Communion all at once, just before Easter 2000," he recalled. 

A Catholic donated funeral services and a burial plot in Westchester County. More recently, a Confirmation class that heard Ms. Walker's story was inspired to visit her grave. 

Sister Anna contemplated this story. "We just do these parish missions," she said and trailed off. 

Father Chepaitis finished the thought: "And life just happens around it."[[In-content Ad]]

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