Holy Spirit Parish

Dear Holy Spirit Parish:                                                                  June 26, 2022     
               “He resolutely decided to go to Jerusalem…”
                                                                                          (Luke 9:51)
We have the blessing of hindsight.  We know why Jesus insisted on going to Jerusalem.  He was God’s son and would die and rise to break the chain of death binding humanity.  But the disciples, the crowds, and maybe even Jesus himself, did not have that blessing when the decision was made.  The rest of today’s Gospel documents the uncertainty and confusion.  Jesus scolds his disciples for wanting to fight the Samaritans.  Other would-be disciples think they can keep the life they currently have and still gain the life Jesus offered.  Mark notes in his Gospel: “They followed him in fear and amazement.” (Mark 10:32)

That well expresses what we staff, and maybe you too, are feeling these days.  We’ve made commitments—to Divine Renovation, to home based Faith Formation, to FOCUS, to changing staff, to Christ!—but we don’t know how it is all going to come together in the end. We walk in some fear and lots of amazement.

At our June 16^th Parish Council meeting, it was agreed to welcome Evergreen Initiatives to use Kostka Hall.  The Church they are currently located in wants to repurpose the space.  Evergreen Initiatives is a completely volunteer ecumenical organization   Their Mission Statement is: “To Be The Light In The Midst of Darkness.”  They currently provide four services to our community.  They are best known for the winter Warming Center for homeless people they operate at Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church.  They are also the people who wrap up trees by the public library each winter with scarves, hats and mittens free for people to take.

The Kids Closet, begun in 2014, provides clothing, hygiene products, diapers, and formula, free of charge, no questions asked, to young families.  They typically serve 250 families a month.  There is no money exchanged, everything is donated.  They are open Mondays from 9:00am to 11:00am and Thursdays from 2:00pm to 4:00pm.  They ask nothing of us but space, though they would welcome additional volunteers and item donations.  They will use about 1/5^th of Kostka hall for their shelves, hangers and tubs of goods.

Their fourth ministry, and second one they will host at Holy Spirit, is the Place of Peace meal. Some of you may remember in the 80’s? that Catholic parishes in town got together in the spirit of the Catholic Worker movement of Dorothy Day and started providing a free meal once a week. Members of Holy Spirit were some of the originators of this effort.  In time a family donated a house to the movement.  Over the years other organizations became involved in providing the meal. Eventually the Catholic parishes stepped out and Evergreen Initiatives continued the service.  The meal is served every Thursday (except Thanksgiving).  Doors open at 4:00pm, dinner is served at 5:00pm and everyone is done by 6:00pm.  Pre-Covid they were serving 34 to 40 people each week.

Tiffany Krueger, the director of Evergreen Initiatives, hopes to be relocated and in operation by mid-August when they have a big “Back to School” event where families can come and get clothes and supplies for the school year.  As I said on Sunday, there is no more Pro-Life a ministry in this town than the Kid’s Closet.  I and the Parish Council felt it would be a win-win-win decision to welcome them to Holy Spirit parish.

At that same meeting, the Pastoral Council officially accepted the final report of the Synod Steering Committee. Acceptance meant they believe the Synod Process was done well and the report is an accurate recounting of what participants shared.  Therefore, the report was sent on to the Bishop and is now available to all parish members or any other interested party.  Determining how we respond to what was expressed through the Synod is the frightening and amazing journey ahead of us!
    
Fr. Steve 

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