Greetings in Christ all! A blessed and holy Easter Season to you and yours.
I want to start off with some sad news. I received a call from Bishop Earl that Fr. Bill Wegher is being reassigned to serve as Sacramental Minister to the Catholic Churches in Durand and Gaines.
The good news is that he will still be living here with us and help as he can but, starting in July, he will be serving elsewhere. I have very much enjoyed his being here and how helpful he is and, while I am happy for him, I can’t help but feel a bit bad for myself and Our Parish Families.
I invite us to keep Fr. Bill in our prayers, as well as for the people of Gaines and Durand. It’s been a pretty turbulent time for them and I can’t imagine how tough this must be.
Update
So…I’ve been here about ten months and during that time, I have made sure to observe all I can and learn as much as I can about both of our Parish Families. This year has been life giving, but absolutely exhausting as I have moved from appointment to appointment, meeting to meeting. Now, I think it is time for me to move from reacting to planning and executing.
Over the next few weeks, I am scheduling as few appointments and meetings as possible so that I can take what I have learned and create a plan for our Parish Families.
For the last ten months, I’ve been taking a lot of notes and journaling so that I can share a vision for our parish and how we will operate and make decisions. Here is what I have so far for a foundational concept.
Foundational Concept:
As a Catholic Church, we exist to facilitate a personal encounter with Christ. We experience Christ in our Church through our active Sacramental life and from that should come three fruits: Prayer, Service and Growth.
Prayer:
Our Sacramental Life should encourage and strengthen a life of personal and family prayer, as well as prayers for healing and discernment.
Service:
Our Sacramental Life should encourage and strengthen our commitment to serving the poor, the broken and the vulnerable.
Growth
Our Sacramental Life should encourage and strengthen our commitment to grow in knowledge of Our Faith and how to live it in the world.
I am going to put plans together for how our Parishes will operate and how we will function practically out of this concept and I ask for your prayers as I work through it. I really long to be a faithful priest and a good leader to and for you and that is only possible if you are praying for and with me!
So, I’ll keep you all updated as I move along and, when this task is completed, I will have a handout for everyone.
I’m very blessed to be your priest.
fjk
