St. Philip’s church mixed the solemn and the zany in celebrating its 75th Diamond Jubilee Anniversary Sunday. The solemn included a procession through a raw and blustery October afternoon to a special high mass conducted in the BSC Fieldhouse. Persons and groups from around the Bemidji area walked in the procession…. St. Philip’s two oldest parishioners, Kathryn and Ed Gould both braved the cold to join the procession. Ed joined the parish in 1901, six years before the present church was built. While the new facility was under construction, he attended services in the Bemidji Hide and Fur Company building.
Members of the parish filled the BSC Fieldhouse for the solemn liturgy. Former St. Philip’s pastors Msgr. John R. McAleer, 1946-51, Fr. Joseph F. Mulvey, 1951-63 and Fr. William F. Lemen. 1963-72 concelebrated the mass with Fathers William Mehrkens, Duane Pribula and Paul Kabat. Most Reverend Kenneth Povish, bishop of Crookston was the principal celebrant. Assisting in the liturgy were Fr. Roger Frundhaiis, chancellor, lectors Mrs. Renette Reinhardt and Mr. John Schuiling. Mrs. Marie Luoma directed the choir with Mrs. Ronald Gearman, Mrs. Richard Reid and Miss Laurie Braaten serving as organists.
Evening found parishoners and dignitaries in a zanier mood as willing members of the parish took the stage of the Beaux Arts Ballroom to perform skits and songs that ranged from the not nearly sublime to the completely ridiculous. A group of way-past-their-prime ballerinas clad in tutus made up of former male graduates of St. Philip school made the crowd go deliriously bananas as they pranced and flitted laboriously across the stage. There was also liberal sprinklings of songs from solos to quartets. (Bemidji Pioneer, Oct 9, 1974)