I am excited to be here, joining the community of St. Joan of Arc Parish and School.
My name is Fr. Andrew Dawson. I was ordained in 2017, the same day Archbishop presented his Unleash the Gospel pastoral letter, so I consider that letter to be my job description.
I come to you after a happy 3-year assignment at St. Fabian in Farmington Hills. You might say, “I’m not from these parts!” I have lived in Michigan for the past 25 years, but was born and raised in the UK.
I am the middle child of three, the mischievous one, apparently. I was born into a Baptist family, although my father is now a retired Anglican priest. I am the only Catholic in my family. I joined the Catholic Church in 2006 and entered Sacred Heart Major Seminary in 2011. I have a love for the Eucharist. The Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist was ironically both my biggest “Protestant struggle” with the Catholic faith, AND the foundation of my conversion to Catholicism. God always knows exactly where to hit us! I look forward to being able to share that story with you, and how the Lord broke down my stubborn heart!
I grew up in Yorkshire in northern England, in farm country. In another world, I’d be a farmer, somewhere in the back and beyond. God called me to another vocation. And God’s ideas are always better than ours…. But still, I found myself a 1946 red Farmall tractor that I am gradually restoring. She purrs and runs with all the elegance you’d expect of a farm tractor! You can take the boy away from the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the boy!
When I’m not driving the tractor, I enjoy working with my hands. I like to build things. I finished building a storage shed at St Fabian only last week! And I like to re-purpose things to create rustic furniture or art. I also like to draw, particularly saints and religious artwork. I enjoy singing and sang in the choir throughout my seminary years. I love to watch auto-racing and I enjoy fishing. I’m in no way an accomplished fisherman, but there’s nothing as beautiful as sitting in a small rowing boat on a flat, glassy lake on a summer evening as the Michigan sun goes down... and it doesn’t even bother me if I fail to catch anything!
My favorite saints are St. Peter, St. John Vianney and St. Ignatius of Loyola, each of which have been of great assistance to me in discerning my vocation and continue to be close to my heart.
I’m really looking forward to meeting you all and sharing my love of this One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic faith. Please introduce yourself (more than once, please!).
You are all in my prayers.
Fr. Andrew Dawson
adawson@sjascs.org