Dcn. Tom McClelland moving from diocese after many years of service

By Caty Mraz
The U.P. Catholic

“The Upper Peninsula rightfully owns the title ‘God’s Country,’ and Mary Anne and I have learned that ‘real people’ live here. There is great care and concern among people in our community and in Mackinac County, as we have observed in our years of involvement with the St. Ignace Food Pantry, St. Ignace Area Hope, and in our St. Ignatius Loyola Parish,” Dcn. Tom McClelland said.

Now after years of service to the Diocese of Marquette, Dcn. McClelland and his wife, Mary Anne, will be moving to the lower peninsula of Michigan. He has served at St. Ignatius Loyola Parish in St. Ignace and Immaculate Conception Parish in Moran for many years.

Dcn. McClelland’s diaconate formation classes were mainly through the Diocese of Gaylord with additional classes through the Diocese of Green Bay and Silver Lake College. Along with six other permanent deacon candidates, he was ordained by then Bishop Alexander Sample on June 9, 2006: “the feast of St. Ephrem, deacon and doctor,” he noted. “I have served 18 years as a permanent deacon,” he said.

“Mary Anne and I came to St. Ignace from downstate in the summer of 1998 and moved into our then newly constructed house with great views of Lake Huron out our living room, dining room, and family room windows. To the east, we can also keep an eye on Mackinac Island,” Dcn. McClelland said.

The pair met in the Keweenaw in 1961, when Dcn. McClelland (then Methodist) was a student at Michigan Technological University in Houghton and Mary Anne was a student nurse at what was then St. Joseph School of Nursing in Hancock. Dcn. McClelland described his wife as “the great evangelizer” after she asked if he would like to come to Mass with her.

“With God’s grace and the prompting of the Holy Spirit, I fell in love with the Catholic Church and with her!” Dcn. McClelland said. “Over the next three decades, we would often say, ‘We should move back to the U.P. someday!’ And so, we did.”

Dcn. McClelland said that he and Mary Anne are happy and pleased to be moving closer to two of their four sons and their families in Ann Arbor. “Before moving to St. Ignace, we experienced firsthand the special love, caring, and goodness that is shared between aging parents and their children, and this move to be within seven miles of family will be a huge plus for us. For the past 26 years, we’ve been 280 miles apart,” he said.

Dcn. McClelland said that the pair will miss the sense of togetherness and closeness with the many dozens of people that they have come to know in the diocese. “We will miss the natural beauty of the U.P. and all the pointy trees. We will also miss the ever-changing views of Lake Huron out our windows: the many shades of blue water, the passenger ferries to and from Mackinac Island, and in November-December the lake freighters anchored a couple of miles out while they await calmer winds,” he said.

“I will always be a deacon, and I’m confident that God will show me a new role in Ann Arbor. I look forward to whatever He gives me. My mobility and balance at age 82, however, are telling me that I must be circumspect,” Dcn. McClelland said.

He said that their new parish would be St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in Ann Arbor, and its pastor, Fr. Bill Ashbaugh, already knows them, so finding a role will be easy. “There are currently three active deacons in the parish. Maybe I will be invited to be the ‘helpful deacon’ who is asked to bless homes or lead in praying the Divine Office or occasionally take Communion to the homebound,” he said.

“One thing for sure, and I’ve promised this to Mary Anne: I will increase the amount of time each day that I devote to my first vocation—my marriage,” Dcn. McClelland said. “She has been a ‘choir-widow’ or ‘deacon-widow’ for 25 years; now I will sit next to her in the pew when we are at Mass together.”

Dcn. McClelland said that he feels very blessed and strong in his faith. “Not having a day-job for the last 26 years, which allowed me a lot of time to serve others, made Jesus and the Holy Spirit real for me in ways I could never have otherwise imagined.” He added that leading small groups four times through the Bible study of Jeff Cavins’ “Bible Timeline” has been “amazing!” He said, “Knowing the narrative story of God’s plan for salvation is like fertilizer on the flower of faith.”

“Mary Anne and I hope to visit the U.P. many times in the future, to visit friends and acquaintances here and to play tourist,” Dcn. McClelland said. “Also, we have our cemetery plots in the St. Ignatius Loyola Catholic Cemetery here in St. Ignace—so we expect to be here for a very long time.”

Dcn. McClelland also has advice for Catholics across the Upper Peninsula: “One: take time to learn Scripture. Truly study the gospels. And if you can, diligently study the 24-week “Bible Timeline” by Ascension Press. Two: deliberately, intentionally be a friend of Jesus. Know and love him personally. Talk with him frequently! Three: every morning, when your feet first touch the floor, say three words: ‘Gladly, Jesus, gladly.’”

To read this story and others in The U.P. Catholic, visit https://www.upcatholic.org/