September 26, 2021

Dear Friends,

Each September I take a Sunday to offer a “State of the Parish” reflection as my homily, and this weekend is the time for it this year. The more extensive written report was mailed to every parish household, with the hope that it will have arrived at your home by the time you read this. If not, please keep your eyes open for it to arrive in the coming days. In addition to a snapshot financial report for the fiscal year that ended in June (the Finance Council reviewed and approved the much more detailed report in July), I reflect some on the highlights of the past year while looking ahead to the future.
 
Our Episcopal Vicar, Bishop Robert Lombardo, attended the Parish Council meeting last week. Deacon Colm and I have begun meeting regularly with the Vicariate Parish Vitality Coordinator, James Ehrler, to discuss the Evangelization effort and we were recently assigned an Evangelization Coordinator from the Archdiocesan Office of Evangelization and Missionary Discipleship, and her name is Alicja Pozywio. I had a chance to meet with her for the first time this past week. Bishop Lombardo is putting together a team of religious sisters and seminarians to come to Nativity the evening of October 18th for a “Night of Mercy.” More on this in upcoming bulletins.
 
I am happy to report that it looks like work will begin this week to repair the cross embedded into the façade over the entrance doors at Saint Gabriel. Given the various inspections we have had over the past years, it looks like we can make a case for a possible lightning strike having weakened the stone, which means it could be an insurance claim. I’m crossing my fingers… Once that work is done, we will tackle the roof over the vestibule. I am still waiting for the formal revised report on the bell tower which we will use to get the wheels rolling on bids and finally tackling that project. At Nativity’s church we are working to schedule the roof work needed near the bell tower, where water has entered and caused some interior ceiling damage over the choir loft. We will pay for the roof work, but repairing the ceiling damage will be covered by insurance (we won’t do that, though, until we are sure that the water issue has definitely been addressed).
 
Please read Carl DeSanti’s piece in this weekend’s bulletin, in which he outlines his plan for beefing up our liturgical music ministry. We are blessed to have Carl and Kenned leading this ministry, and I hope that some new people will respond to his invitation to get involved!
 
May your week reflect the encounter with Christ we experienced at Mass today!