The Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe del Valle de Pojoaque parish will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the new Pojoaque Valley parish on Aug. 30.

The festivities begin with a 10:30 a.m. celebration of Mass in Pojoaque. Seven of the former pastors — Sipio Salas, Guadalupe Rivera, John C. Rodriguez, Anthony P. Bolman, Tom Zotter and Augustine J. Moore — have been invited to participate in the Mass. Flavio Santillanes, the current pastor, will also help celebrate Mass.

Lillimae G. Ortiz, a parish member, said Pueblo of Pojoaque dancers will dance during the Mass. She said three choirs from Nambé, El Rancho and Pojoaque will sing as will Javier Ortiz, who will sing the Ave Maria.

Immediately after the Mass, lunch will be served in the parish hall and at an outside tent, erected to hold the expected 300-400 celebrants.

Manny Chavez and Gus Roybal will stroll through the dining areas playing guitar.

A PowerPoint presentation of the parish's history will be shown in the parish hall and outside on a flat-screen monitor.

The genesis of the "new" Pojoaque Valley parish occurred on Jan. 20, 1959, when the Rev. Edwin V. Byrne, archbishop of Santa Fe, in a letter to the Rev. Augustine Cortes, pastor of the Holy Cross Church in Santa Cruz, directed Cortes to "erect a new parish in the Nambé-Pojoaque district."

Cortes went on to say the "new parish" was to be called the Sacred Heart Parish and "will be at the Sacred Heart Church in Nambé and will include Pojoaque, El Rancho and Nambé Indian Pueblo."

Byrne named the Rev. Sipio A. Salas as the first pastor of the new Sacred Heart parish. Salas was the parish priest from 1959-60.

Prior to the 1959 edict from Byrne, the Pojoaque Valley churches and community had been served by missionary priests from Santa Cruz.

In 1965, the construction of the Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe del Valle of Pojoaque Catholic Church was completed and the name of the parish changed from Sacred Heart to Our Lady of Guadalupe.

What we're celebrating is the birth of a new parish in Pojoaque Valley, John Archuleta, parish deacon said.

The parish includes the communities of Nambé Pueblo, Pojoaque Pueblo, Nambé, El Rancho, Jacona, Jaconita, Cuyamungue and Pojoaque.

Robert Sena, a parish member, said before 1959, the Catholic community in Pojoaque had been served for approximately 300 years by missionaries.

"My grandmother told me the circuit priests from Santa Cruz would travel from Santa Cruz in buggies," Sena said. "They would come to Pojoaque on Saturday night, spend the night and say Mass on Sunday."

The original Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe del Valle church was built near the cemetery on Pueblo of Pojoaque land. It was built in 1922 and demolished in 1959 because of irreparable structural damage, Archuleta said.

Currently there are four churches in the parish: Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Del Valle in Pojoaque, Sagrado Corazón de Jesus in Nambé, San Francisco Asis on the Nambé Pueblo and St. Anthony de Padua in El Rancho. The parish has 800 parishioners.

In 1946, the Sagrado Corazón de Jesus Church, which was built in 1790, burned down. It was rebuilt with the help of parishioners in about a year's time, Archuleta said.

Ortiz said the anniversary celebration couldn't have come to fruition without the guidance of Father Santillanes.

"Father Santillanes has been our pastor for 13 years," Ortiz said. "The 50th anniversary is a reflection of his awesome ability to pull together and empower the community. His spiritual guidance been invaluable in making this celebration possible."

Contact John Knoll at johnknoll77@hotmail.com