More than 400 St. Thomas More parishioners and community members participated in the St. Thomas More Parish Assembly on December 4 to grow parish leadership and respond to the needs of the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The event organized with COPS\/Metro was part of a worldwide call from Pope Francis to \u201cjourney together\u201d through a synod process. Participants shared struggles like neighborhood crime, isolation, and living without a place to call \u201chome,\u201d and leaders called on those present to transform the church and act on their responsibility for all people within their parish boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leaders held conversations over eight months with more than 250 parishioners, teachers, youth, and others around questions like \u201chow do we \u2018journey together\u2019 and how can we better \u2018journey together\u2019 in the future?\u201d and \u201chow did the pandemic affect you and your family?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The themes that emerged were discussed at the assembly — many people don\u2019t know each other, parishioners and 30 children at a nearby elementary school are homeless, many parishioners are homebound and otherwise isolated, and there is a strong interest in supporting youth and the homebound, developing relationships and becoming more welcoming, and to listen to and support neighbors in the community — especially the most vulnerable. The congregation is in the 78218 zip code, where one in six residents live in poverty, within the poorest metropolitan area in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The call to action was for all to participate in the life of the parish, to strengthen the church with their time, talent, and treasure to build relationships to respond to the community needs. Fr. Mike English, in his assembly homily proclaimed, \u201cThe wind of the Holy Spirit stokes the fire within us — prompting us to action — prompting us to new action. As the fire is stoked — it provides greater warmth and light to those around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Religious leaders present included Sr. Jane Ann Slater, CDP; Father David Garcia, Father Mike DeGerolami, Father Jim Schellenberg and Father Mike English.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 400 St. Thomas More parishioners and community members participated in the St. Thomas More Parish Assembly on December 4 to grow parish leadership and respond to the needs of the community. The event organized with COPS\/Metro was part of a worldwide call from Pope Francis to \u201cjourney together\u201d through a synod process. Participants […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":18972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n