Merger Questions & Answers |
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Click here to read about the above section, taken from the Trinity Icon.
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Merger Feedback Process Have questions or feedback related to the parish merger? Please E-mail all your comments to: mergerfeedback@gmail.com (click the address and send your message). When you submit your comments, you may do so anonymously or you can ask for a member of the Pastoral Council to contact you personally. On a weekly basis, the communication team will gather all the question and respond as soon as possible. The answers will be made available online and on the merger bulletin boards at the East and West Campuses of St. Thomas More and at St. Thomas More School. As questions come in and discussion topics rise to the top we will also be holding listening sessions as a way for your voice to be heard in a community setting. We will inform you of dates and times as the need arises.
Hearing Your Voice During the
Merger Process: We have set up multiple ways for you to submit your questions and frustrations, your ideas and words of encouragement. First, we have set up new bulletin boards at the entrance of each church and by the office at our school. At those locations we have also placed Q&A boxes. Simply write your comments on pieces of paper and drop them in the box. Second, for those of you who use email, we have set up a dedicated E-mail address here to which you can contact us. Third, after each mass, members of our Parish Pastoral Councils will be available near the main entrance to the church to personally try to answer your questions, or at the very least carry your questions back to the Pastoral Councils or Communication Team, as appropriate.
Fourth, you can mail your feedback or
questions to:
Questions and Answers The most current questions will be posted first, with preceding questions to follow. February 2/3 Submission: Comment & Question: I am concerned about parish input into the ongoing merger process. The parishes were merged without broad input from the community, and in the recent bulletin we learned that the name was selected by Fr. Joe without input and now the logo is being professionally designed with no mention of input.
The broader community is expected to want to be engaged in
the parish but lacks opportunities to meaningfully participate in the
process. Can we improve the ability of the collective a Parishioner Answer: The Archbishop names new parishes, and he selected the name of our new parish. In October, Fr. Weiss presented the concept of naming our newly combined parish with the name of a lay saint, rather than a created name like Lumen Christi, to the Archbishop on behalf of our community. The Archbishop was intrigued by the idea and gave indication he would strongly consider a saint’s name representing the lay people. Archbishop Harry Flynn named the new parish in honor of St. Thomas More to pay tribute to the community’s long history of lay leadership and the academic mission of the Jesuits serving the parish, a religious order strongly committed to education and building Catholic communities rooted in “faith that does justice.”
Each member of the community will have the opportunity to
meaningfully participate in building and shaping our newly formed parish as
we collectively commit to a new mission The new Pastoral Council and the Strategic Planning Team are diligently working on a draft of the new mission statement. Your input and reflection upon this draft will be requested at an upcoming Merger Update Session scheduled for early spring. Please look for announcements in the bulletin, website, family flyer, and church bulletin boards for further information. In the meantime, please contact the various directors of each pastoral ministry for a variety of opportunities to engage fully in our parish life. January 26/27 Submission: Comment: The Catholic grade school I attended in another city no longer exists. The Catholic church where I was confirmed is now an Assembly of God house of worship. My high school was razed a few years ago. Friends and family have changed their names and businesses have done the same. Liberty State Bank is now Associated Bank. The list goes on.
I know the merger is very painful for many of the good people
in this neighborhood. But I also know a bit of advice from two sages. I once
read an interview of a 100-year-old woman What we have left is Jesus in the Eucharist who empowers us with grace to live each gifted day. We have church and school structures, we have Father Joe, and we have community. Our children have a new patron who sets a fine example of scholarship and integrity. All of us are MORE challenged to move forward with grateful hearts under the Holy Spirit.
Michaelene Zawistowski, IHM January 19/20 Submission: Comment: For the longest time I have thought, reflected, and prayed over the many changes, unexpected events, and seeming conflicts that continue to be an unsettling part of the life inside and outside of the IHM-St. Luke complex. I’ve tried to make sense of the pain, alienation, comings and goings, and general rage, anger, hurt, and frustration that exists in the conversations and feelings expressed by so many of the parishioners of both communities. Without saying so, it seems like we were asked to die to some of the things we held dear: worship at the three locations; expectations about community, faithfulness, and spiritual nourishment; a vibrant (albeit, casual) ritual and liturgical gathering of each community. There was a bond, a unity, a togetherness that existed in spite of the differences in points of view, diversity of liturgies, and lack of communication.
One of the things that has become clear to me is that we will
not return So, I hope you will read on as I still try to make sense about all of this. It may be a big leap in mind, heart, faith, and spirit to consider that through the voices of Archbishop Flynn, the Pastoral and Finance Councils, Fr. Joe and staff, parishioners and friends, the Holy Spirit is inviting you and me to create a new community in this place (St. Paul) and time (2008 to ??) that has never existed before. It could be an invitation for you and me and many others to be a gathering of God’s family, relatives, friends, in-laws and out-laws, children, elders, etc., who can be a new way of being Christ in this world, gathered around Eucharist, and able to receive and give love to a broken world.
We are also being called to be known as the community of St.
Thomas More. And while this name change is difficult and even painful, it really does not take anything away from who you were as a Luker or IHMer, any more than by taking her husband’s name, my niece was no longer known as a Fisher (her family name) or when a company spins off another entity as 3M did with Imation, the original Imation people still had the 3M spirit as part of their history. This certainly is not the only way to make some sense of the recent pronouncements, but it is one that allows me to be involved and to put energy, and excitement into what I believe is fairly direct communication from the Holy Spirit. There are so many options open to us today that none of us is obligated to become an integral part of this new ecclesia, this new gathering of God’s people. But if you are willing to risk ‘making all things new,’ of being a leading example of a community that is inclusive, diverse, committed to loving one another, of being a way for Christ to be in the world, of celebrating our brokenness and our dependence on one another around the Eucharistic table, and of being with one another in our sorrows and joys, please prayerfully consider joining the community of St. Thomas More. Joe Claus
Emerging, Our Baptismal Call
The powerful words and images of baptism are revealed over and over during our journey of faith. God gifts us with new life and we promise to follow the way of Jesus, to become Christ for our world. Living in community is the vehicle by which we experience the Paschal Mystery - the living, dying and rising of Jesus. Some weeks ago our pastoral leaders arrived at the decision that the future of our two faith communities depended upon answering an invitation, a challenge from the Holy Spirit: to unite the people who are Immaculate Heart of Mary and the people who are Saint Luke, to form one strong, loving community committed to one another and to the reign of God. In this time and place, a parish merger is what we are presented with - the term “merger,” co-opted from the business world, describes how the corporate structure of our two parishes will be joined. However the “business” that we are about as the people of God is creating something new. A community that will be neither Immaculate Heart of Mary or Saint Luke and at the same time both Immaculate Heart of Mary and Saint Luke. As each of us emerged from the waters of baptism, our community will emerge from the giftedness that is the past and present of these two beloved parishes and the future of the new parish we will form and grow to love.
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emerge
(ē murj’, i-) vi. emerged′, emerg′ing 1 to rise from or as from a surrounding
liquid 2 a) to come forth into view; become visible b) to become apparent or
known 3 to develop or evolve as something new