St. Paul Church
Recently I have been spending a lot of time at the Archdiocesan Office in Hartford because of our Kensington Grammar School project. The different offices in the Archdiocese have looked at almost every aspect of our parish. I have to say that the officials in the Archdiocese are very impressed with how things are going here at St. Paul in Kensington. Our finances are very solid and our participation is up at Mass. The parish was very supportive of the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal. Last year we surpassed our goal by $15,000. We have a number of great parish organizations and initiatives. Our school enrollment is steady when many schools have seen a slight drop in enrollment. We have so much to be grateful for and proud of. The future is bright here at St. Paul and, as you early bulletin readers will see, I’ll have more to say about this at the Masses this weekend. I just wanted to say thank you for caring so much about your parish.
Great turn out
Last week way over 100 people attended the first session of our new Adult Faith Formation Program, which Fr. Peter is running. It is called “Build up Faith.” The church hall was very full. Everyone who attended was very pleased. This is something that our parish has wanted for a long time and I am grateful to Fr. Peter for organizing it and grateful to everyone who attended. With the new Bible Study Program, we are making significant progress in helping our parishioners grow in their faith. Planning is already underway for a spring program. Please let Fr. Peter know what areas you would like him to cover.
Youth Update
I want you to know that we now have a functioning high school Youth Group in our Parish. It meets every Monday night in the Church Hall. I have spoken to a couple of our young people who participate and they told me that they really enjoy their time together. Right after the New Year a middle school youth group will be starting. Our young people are our future and I am so pleased that our youth ministry is getting off the ground.
Attention 80’s + Parishioners
You should have received a letter from the Helping Hands Ministry last week. If you did not, just call the Parish Office and check with Flora. Maybe you moved and we didn’t know about it. Please take the time to read the letter and let us know if and how your parish can be of assistance to you. We can’t be all things to all people, but we have a bunch of volunteers ready to get involved if there is a real need of support for our Senior Citizens.
Please Pray for our Sick
Between this week and last week we had 24 people in the hospital.. That’s a record for St. Paul’s. Please keep our sick and their families in your prayers. Sickness is a very heavy cross to carry indeed.
Subsidy for our Catholic High School Students
It seems like I am forever signing tuition subsidy checks and I don’t mind a bit. Every month I sign a big check for our school support. Then around October and November we got a letter from each of the Catholic High Schools in the Archdiocese with a list of students who are registered in our parish. Because we believe in Catholic Education, we try to help each of them with a little tuition assistance. Many years ago the Pastoral Council set up the policy that in order for the parish to support a young person going to a Catholic High School, the family must contribute at least $250 a year-that’s around $5.00 a week. This amount has not gone up in years. If a family does not attend St. Paul’s and does not contribute at least that amount, then the parish is unable to offer them a tuition subsidy or a parishioner scholarship for our grammar school. Please don’t take it personally if you are informed that we can’t grant you the subsidy this year. We are just following the policy the Pastoral Council established long ago.
Fundits Report
Last weekend you purchased just over $1000 worth of fundits or gift cards. As you know, our parish will receive a percentage of that total depending on the cards that you purchased. The money raised through our fundits program go directly to support our school, our youth ministry, and young adult programs. Thank you and please keep buying those fundits.