Fr. Alan Wakefield at St. James, Mason, MI 48854 US - Home

I was born in Lansing on August 26, 1948, the second of two children of Grant and Anna Mary Wakefield. My sister, Brenda, is retired from the Grand Blanc School District, and she and her husband (Jim Barnes) have two married sons and two granddaughters. I grew up in (Lansing) St. Casimir parish, attending grade school there. I graduated from Sexton High School in 1966. After one year at Michigan State University, I enrolled at Sacred Heart Seminary College, Detroit, where I graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy in 1970. While at St. John Seminary in Plymouth for Theology, I received an M.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Detroit in Spring of 1973.

On November 10, 1973, I was ordained a deacon at St. Mary Cathedral in Lansing, by Bishop Alexander Zaleski. I served as a deacon at Holy Rosary Church in Flint from January 1974 until I was ordained a priest, April 19, 1975, by Auxiliary Bishop James Sullivan, seven months before Bishop Kenneth Povish came as the third bishop of our diocese. I was then assigned as associate pastor of St. John Parish in Davison, where I served until summer of 1979. I was associate pastor at Immaculate Heart Parish in Lansing until summer of 1981, and associate pastor of St. Gerard Parish in Lansing for a year. I then became pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Flint and chaplain of Luke M. Powers Catholic High School. After three years in Flint, I was asked by Bishop Povish to consider founding a parish in Okemos. But, the bishop decided to delay founding that parish, and I was appointed as pastor of St. John Parish in Hartland, and later to St. Peter Parish in Eaton Rapids.

While chaplain at Powers Catholic High School, I started a grief support group for students who had experienced a death in the family. I discovered that there were many teens who had experienced the death of someone close to them but there was not much literature or support for adolescents who were grieving.  Eventually, this became my major project for the Doctor of Ministry, which I attained from St. Mary Seminary & University, Baltimore, in 1985.  I have continued in youth ministry on the diocesan level, being the spiritual director for our annual Diocesan Youth Leadership Camp for several years, and receiving the Diocese of Lansing "Friend of Youth" award in 2004.

While pastor of St. Peter Parish in Eaton Rapids, I took computer programming classes at Lansing Community College.  In the summer of 1990, I requested a leave of absence and pursued a career in data processing.  Back when I was at Michigan State, I had studied computer programming and enjoyed it a great deal.  I was hired by EDS in their Systems Engineer Development Program and served there as systems engineer for about eight years.  While working for EDS, I frequently assisted in different parishes on weekends to fill in for priests who were away. I also was a lead facilitator for a middle-school aged children’s support group at Ele’s Place, a center for grieving children in Lansing; I volunteered at Literacy Volunteers, teaching reading to adults; and I assisted in youth ministry at Immaculate Heart Parish in Lansing. During this time, I purchased my condo in Holt, where I still reside.  Eventually, I found myself drawn more and more to full time ministry again.  When the pastorate of St. James became open with the retirement of Fr. Ken McDonald, I applied to our diocesan personnel committee in late 1998, and was appointed pastor here at the end of June, 1999, by Bishop Carl Mengeling.

From the Fall of 2004 until the Spring of 2006, I completed an internship for spiritual direction at St. Francis Retreat Center in DeWitt. That program has made me hungry for greater spiritual growth, and during that program I began to envision what I would like to do on a Sabbatical to further that growth.  The sabbatical experience for priests, directed toward personal and spiritual growth, is a regular feature of priestly life and ministry in our Diocese of Lansing.  In the Fall of 2008, I had a sabbatical experience including a Progoff Journal Workshop, a week at Plum Village, a week at Taize, five weeks of walking the Camino de Santiago, and while in Spain, following in the footsteps of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. I completed my sabbatical with a Forty-Day Spiritual Exercises (of St. Ignatius) Institute in Guelph, Ontario, in the Spring of 2009.

In September 2010, I retired from full time parish ministry, but continue to work as a spiritual director and in diocesan youth ministry.  I had rotator cuff surgery on September 1 and robotic assisted heart valve repair surgery on November 3.

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