As Highway 101 drops down the Conejo Grade onto the Oxnard Plain, strawberry, lettuce, celery and broccoli fields can be seen. Surrounding the fields are housing tracts stretching from Camarillo to Ventura, quick reminders that large numbers of Angelenos now commute from Oxnard.

But many fields remain, another reminder that Oxnard --- population pushing 200,000 --- is still an agricultural community attempting to maintain balance with a commuter world. Santa Clara Church, the Oxnard mother parish with a 119-year history, has remained a deeply rooted parish --- rooted in the earth and family farms of the community, rooted in faith, tradition and love of parish community.

In a recently opened time capsule from 100 years ago, names like Oxnard, Laubacher, Camarillo, Carroll, Wolf, Maulhardt, McGrath and Freidrich are inscribed in a small black book. The same names are still found in the parish registry, alongside others like Gonzalez, Luna and Delgado --- second and first generation parishioners. Newcomers continue to arrive at Santa Clara, a parish where tradition neatly melds with the new.

Eleven Masses are celebrated each Sunday between the downtown parish church on E Street and the parochial mission (or "El Rio Chapel") adjacent to Highway 101. Only two of those Masses are in Spanish. Santa Clara is a giant among parishes with 10,000 families, 7,000 at the main church and 3,000 in the chapel.

The parish never rests with its liturgy, youth and prayer groups, Bible study and organizations like Men of Promise, St. Vincent de Paul (with its Truck Sundays and Thrift Store), Young Adult Diners Club, Families of Nazareth, Legion of Mary, Health Ministry and Bereavement, and religious education.

"This parish is alive," says Father Marco Ortiz, associate pastor, "and it has a great spirit."

"They're incredible," adds Father Jon Majarucon, the pastor, who should know ---he grew up in Oxnard. "Coming home" has been a great experience for him. His parishioners reflect his attitude and admire the respect he has shown the parish, and love what he has done.

"He's really rooted," says Santa Clara School principal Dorothy Massa, "rooted in Oxnard and rooted in the faith." Parishioners especially love what he has done to return the church to its former beauty with gleaming fresh paint and renovated details in the ceiling and around the altars.

Many former parishioners have returned to see the renovations, too. One recently said that just being there brought back memories of farming, the harvest moon in October, the rhythmic sound of the thrasher, the flying straw --- all of it brought back on her visit to the restored church.

Some things do not change. For all the growth in the area, Santa Clara Parish is still at heart a small town parish with deep roots.