Sugar Creek 2022

The Midwest CW Sugar Creek gathering is a highlight of any year I’m able make it to nowhere Iowa in mid-September and this year featured extra fun as I got to travel up a day early with my hosts from the Columbia, Missouri Catholic Worker.

After stops for Mexican food, ice cream, and then wine we got there later in the evening to find the folks from Detroit excitedly awaiting our arrival. They’d been there for hours already having miscalculated the amount of time it takes to get from the motor city to easter Iowa.

As one of the earliest contingents we got first dibs of tent spots, Sugar Creek being a camping kind of affair save a few indoor sleeping spaces reserved for families and elders. In 24 hours the field would be full of tents of Catholic Workers. There’s only two rules at Sugar Creek: No camping in the cemetary and no pets.

 

Folks started trickling in on Friday as the Columbia and Detroit folks welcomed arrivals with frozen pizzas and boxed wine. Frisbees were tossed around and games of “HORSE” were played on the basketball court. Even a few high energy rounds of “knock out” went down. Us over 30s emerged victorious but in need of a breather after all was said and done.

Friday evenings are unprogrammed and generally laid back at Sugar Creek. Folks get there, set up, grab a beer and dinner and just hang out around the fire to see who will pull up next. St. Isidore farm provided chili with meat from one of their homegrown cows!

The church at Sugar Creek’s St. Joseph’s parish ring early, 6 AM early, but thats just the right time to get the breakfast cooks up to start preparing food. The Chicago crew cooked Saturday morning. Homemade cinamon rolls were the star of the show!

After breakfast everyone gathered in a large circle for a brief welcome and some legistical introductions from Eric of St. Isidore CW Farm. As the nearest CW to the retreat location, this host role has fallen of the Isidore folks in recent years.

Brian Terrell then gave abrief history on the Sugar Creek gathering itself, telling of Iowa Catholic Workers first gathering years ago at the site to can the produce they’d grown that summer. It was so much fun gettting together in this way people kept coming and it morphed into the social gathering we have today.

 

Mentions of folks who couldn’t be with us followed. First those seperated by distance: the communities in Duluth who sent along letters about the difficulties that prevented their attendance, Jessica who is in prison for resisting pipelines, Julie who is working in Kurdistan, Mike who just had knee surgery, Mary who just got married and was on her honey moon, and others. There was also time to remember those who have passed on since we were last together year.

Next cane the traditional go around where everyone in turn introduces themselves and their community and give updates on their CW project from the last year. If folks aren’t affiliated with a specific community they share how it is they found their way to Sugar Creek and any CW ajacent projects their involved in.

Now it was time to throw out ideas for round table discussions. CWs would toss out topics that they wouldn’t mind leading a discourse about and as long as a few other folks were interested its written down. These themes are then divied up between three slots, one in the morning and two in the afternoon, and a schedule is posted. With so many interesting things to talk about sometimes is hard to figure out which discussion to attend!

There’s also traditionally a soccer game played during the second afternoon session. All are welcomed to play but watch out for the real CW soccer players. You might know them by the fact that they bring cleats to the gathering just for the match or by their insistance in calling it “football”.

The Detroit CWs made us carrot curry soup for lunch and then with the help of Jesse from Detroit I made beans for dinner.

Saturday evening culminates in a talent show! All kinds of acts show up. Karl Meyer and Brenna sang a duet about war tax resistance set to a tune from the musical South Pacific. Eric and Lincoln hosted Catholic Worker trivia. The Mustard Seed farm and Romero Hospitality House communities (both from the Ames area) performed a West Side Story themed skit about each tring to recruit new CWs to their community at the expense of the other. Lydia and Beth who were married since the last gathering got put to the test in the Catholic Worker version of the Newlywed Game. Plus so much more!

In the end Jesse’s act which included a number of magic tricks won the day, granting him the honor of hoisting Football Mary. This statue of Jesus’s mother has slowed morphed over the years, most notably with the adition of a football bunjied to her. She’s a little worst for wear after melting slightly in one CW house’s green house a few years ago!

After St. Francis House’s decadent breakfast the traditional Sunday morning CW liturgy was held. Maria led us in this participatory lay service. In CW style the homily was preached by anyone in the group who felt called to say a few words. Prayers and petitions were gathered in the same way. And bread and wine were broken and shared from one CW to another.

Just as they slowly trickled in Friday afternoon, so the CW trickle out Sunday morning. Those with long trips and Sunday obligations hit the road first while others made their way out with various levels of leisureliness. There’s always lots of food for folks to take with them as the CW inclination towards generosity leads folks to bring more contributions than is often needed and there is clean up to do. Sugar Creek lets us use their space for cheap so the CWs try and make sure they leave it even better shape than they found it.

Hopefully you can join us next year!

more Sugar Creek photos - including contributions from other photographers