FRYEBURG — More than 250 people gathered for Mass Sunday, Aug. 30, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church.

Bishop Robert P. Deeley, of the Diocese of Portland, attended. The Mass was concelebrated by Innocent Okozi, S.M.A, current pastor; Peter Shaba, S.M.A., parochial vicar; Joseph Daniels, former pastor; and Ralph Boisvert, ordained at Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton in 1999.

Boisvert and others Sunday remembered the days before the church was built when Catholics in Fryeburg traveled to New Hampshire to attend Our Lady of the Mountains Parish in North Conway. Then, in the early 1970s, the community began gathering for Mass in the American Legion Hall in Fryeburg. By 1980, Masses were celebrated at the First Congregational Church on Main Street.

Anne Hastings, a local resident, discovered that 40 acres of land assessed for $68,000 were available on Main Street. The owner, Dorothy Booker, a Fryeburg native living in Missouri, sold the land for $50,000. She also donated another $20,000 to the church’s mission of building a church and hall. In 1989, ground was finally broken for the new church. In less than a year, the first Mass was celebrated.

“Since the Fryeburg Catholic community had no church and no saint’s name when I arrived, I suggested the name of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton to Bishop O’Leary for three reasons: the history of the Catholic faith had been passed on mainly by the women, Seton was a convert to the faith as were many Catholics in Fryeburg and Seton lived in colonial times, and Fryeburg began in that era,” said Father Steven Concannon.

Current and former members of the Fryeburg community assembled Sunday.

“It is just a celebration for me to see the people that I worshipped with and the people that I worked with to make this a reality,” said Anne Massey, who drove from Connecticut to attend the anniversary Mass.

As he concluded his homily, Deeley prayed the celebration would serve as a time of renewal for the community.