Buildings and Maintenance

One of the most time-consuming and surprising aspects of parish life is how much brick-and-mortar projects play a role in parish life. These elements of parish life are necessary, and they need to be attended to with care and an eye to the future.

Currently, we have several projects that are either in progress or are in the planning stages. For example, at Sacred Heart, new windows are being installed as I type, and we are planning to get the parking lot repaired and updated. At Holy Angels the current windows are being cleaned and repaired, as we also look to maintain the school building. At Ss. Peter and Paul, the roof needs to be addressed and so we are looking at getting on a contractor's schedule and beginning to raise more funds for this task. At St. Michael, we are looking at some maintenance that needs to be done with some of the current structures on St. Michael’s campus, and then we are also trying to nail down a plan for a new Parish Activities Center needed to provide adequate space for our CCD students (a good problem to have.) All this means that we have a lot of capital projects going on in our Family of Parishes. This is a sign that communities are truly invested in their parishes. I thank everyone for their generosity to help make these projects possible. Without your generous spirit, we could not continue to plan for the future of our parishes.

But a parish is more than a church building or a series of structures for meetings. In order for our Family of Parishes to serve as a missionary outpost in Shelby County and for me as pastor to govern (administration), teach (catechesis & evangelization), and sanctify (provide the sacraments) we need to have cooperators in the Church’s mission. These cooperators have varying levels of responsibility and leadership in the parish. The finance committees at each of our four parishes help me and our staff with the administration of the Church's temporal goods (money and property). The pastoral councils help with the area of vision and pastoral leadership. Other committees serve to help with other specific areas of governance, teaching, and sanctifying. The backbone of helping our Family of Parishes to fulfill their mission is our parish staffs. They help me as pastor, in allowing me to delegate administrative tasks and aid in catechesis/evangelization to them. Then of course my wonderful vicars help me to sanctify and teach the people of God.

Like each and every one of you, our staff members need food, shelter, and to provide for their families. Everyone loves to give to a physical project that one can see and touch. However, our greatest resource as a parish is people. We need people to help people, to teach people, and to bring people to salvation. Your generosity on Sunday mornings (and Saturday evenings) in the collection basket goes to help pay for staff compensation. So please continue to be generous and consider also increasing your generosity as things are expanding at each of the parishes. We need to ensure we are providing a just wage for our overworked staff and we need your monetary help. Thank you for your continued generosity. Each one of you is amazing and treasured.

Peace in Christ,

Fr. Jarred Kohn