Hello All! My name is Fr. Skjervheim, and I’m the new Parochial Vicar at St. Joseph’s Church.
I arrived here in Devils Lake on June 24 after serving for two years in a similar capacity at St. Michael’s Church in Grand Forks, ND. My name may have many extra consonants, but it is much easier to pronounce than it looks. The first syllable is “Sure” as in “sure, you can do that!” and the second syllable is “Vime.” With an “M.” As in Mary, marshmallow, marmoset or the magnificent movie Matilda, for a final pronunciation of “Sure-vime,” (not the common mispronunciation “Sure-vine!)
I grew up in Langdon and am the youngest of three siblings. My dad farms, and my mom is a retired teacher. She still subs rather frequently, and at times is as busy subbing as she was when she taught full time. My sister teaches in Grand Forks, and my brother farms in the Langdon area. After graduating from high school, I went to UND and majored in history and communications. If you went to any of the football or hockey games between August of 2014 and May of 2018, you likely saw me playing tuba in the Pride of the North Band. I was even the guy who got to run around the full band during the pregame show for the 2017-2018 season.
For most of this time, I had been thinking off and on about becoming a priest. Even as a 3- or 4-year-old going to Sunday mass with my family, there was something about what the priest was doing that I wanted to do someday. These thoughts and desires weren’t always at the forefront of my mind and weren’t always that strong when they were there. They would surface for a time after major faith moments, such as Confirmation or one of the Youth retreats that I would attend through high school, before going back under and not being as strong again. In my junior year of college though, I attended a church conference for college students, and the thoughts of and desire for priesthood came back to the surface, and that time they didn’t go back under.
So, after graduating from UND, I entered seminary for the Diocese of Fargo (in the same year as Devils Lake native, Fr. Taylor Ternes.) For the first two years, I attended St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward, NE. After that, I spent four years finish seminary out on the east coast before being ordained on June 1, 2024 in Fargo. My first pastoral assignment was at St. Michael’s in Grand Forks.
I’m looking forward to being in Devils Lake for as long as the Lord wills me to be here and getting to know as many of you as I can.