With God’s grace and your prayerful support, we continue to build our sense of welcome and unity in all that we do as a church and school. As your Pastoral Council looks to our future as a parish, we will help engender more lay participation as we all come together in this family of faith. We are blessed with so many gifts and talents in our church and school communities. Using our gifts together will ensure continued blessings and greater support in our faith family and community.

The following is a description of the primary categories of our ministries and services through our church and school.

Parish Empowerment Mission:

Parish Empowerment is the administrative arm of the parish, providing support to the parish through strategy development and its implementation; fiscal support and its management; asset management and its betterment; and coordination of the leadership of the church and its school through the laity. Such organizations as Parish Finance Council, Building and Maintenance Planning Committee, School Council, Family Club, Capital Campaign Leadership Council, Mission 150 Council, and Pastoral Council are a part of Parish Empowerment.

Liturgy:

The center of our communal prayer is the celebration of the Eucharist, the Mass, and is defined as the “source and the summit of all our worship”. The goals of liturgy are for the faithful to participate fully, to be aware of what they are doing, to engage actively in the rite, and to be enriched by its effects. Those assisting with liturgy are to help empower full participation of the community, and ensure that those who serve or have a function or office to perform do so with sincere devotion, respect and in a correct and orderly manner.

Life Long Learning:

Formation in our faith is an on-going lifelong process that involves any of the following: formal or informal religious education, sacramental preparation programs, spiritual enrichment programs, scripture study, prayer groups, group faith-sharing, social and community gatherings, workshops, one-time educational events, parish missions, and any parish organization that incorporates faith formation and development component into their regular agenda’s or events. Faith formation and learning does not end in adolescence, but continues and evolves as we grow within our own faith individual and communal journey in Christ.

Social Justice:

Social Justice involves the ministries and organizations of the Church and School that respond to God’s call to care for others in times of need and to work to change situations that violate human dignity. It includes both Social Services (involving corporal works of mercy, charity and direct service to those in need such as our St. Vincent de Paul ministry, our Second Time Around thrift store) and Social Action, which involves taking a deeper look to identify root causes for problems of society, and taking action to right the wrongs such as our Respect Life Committee.