Staff, Festivals, and Projects
Over the summer, we posted two positions on our youth team. One was filled by Valerie Christman and the other went unfilled. We were hoping to hire a Junior High Youth Minister, but there wasn’t a good fit presented. I thought we’d be able to go through the year with one fewer employee, but our youth team has been overwhelmed.
The Lord provided for us. Natalie Patricio-Agosto began working in our parishes last week as the “Temporary Youth Ministry Team Member.” She has volunteered with numerous youth activities at various parishes in the past. She is eager and willing to serve the Lord and our youth and we’re blessed to have her. Please join me in welcoming her to the team.
Grace Weatherhead has been the Communications Coordinator for the Petersburg Parishes for a little over a year. She has done an incredible job and learned her position rather well. She’s learned lots of new software in a short period of time and let some of her creativity flourish.
A couple months ago she told me that she had become so comfortable and familiar with her position that she had some extra time for any other needed tasks. This was incredibly providential because I had been struggling with my personal schedule for a while. I have accidentally double booked meetings, forgotten to put things on the calendar, and struggled to keep my day in order.
Herein lied a solution. Grace has begun helping as my assistant and so far it has worked out very well. She can schedule meetings for me, relay messages, and keep my schedule organized. On top of her communications role, she is adding the responsibilities of “Assistant to the Pastor.” With this in mind, we also created a new email address for her to use in this role, pastor@petersburgparishes.org. Please use this email as needed. Bobbi Donovan will still use office@petersburgparishes.org.
Hopefully this new system will relieve some of the administrative burden on me. It will hopefully work like a dentist’s office. If you need to schedule an appointment with the dentist, you don’t talk to the dentist directly, rather you make an appointment with the assistant. I realize that this may seem a little less personal, but I believe it will help all of us in the long run.
Speaking of the Lord giving us more grace, hopefully you’ve noticed the windows being installed at Immaculate Conception. It is exciting to see the cleaned, restored, and reframed windows back in the Church. Thank you to everyone who generously donated to this project. We’ve exceeded our goal by raising $115,871! Thank you for your generosity!
So many of you have generously given your time and talent to support our parishes and their festivals. We had an incredible year at all of our fundraisers. These festivals have supported the parishes this year. Thank you for your time and support. Here is how much each festival has given to their parish after paying their expenses and keeping money for next year’s event:
St. Lawrence Reverse Raffle: $18,213.17
St. Lawrence Family Festival: $8,934.34
St. Joseph Fourth of July Festival: $100,000
St. John Homecoming & 5K: $45,000
There are numerous individuals who gave hours and hours of their time to pull these events off. Thank you so very much.
Finally St. Joseph parishioners have noticed that the painting in the sanctuary has begun. The center crucifixion scene is being painted a few feet higher. Also two more murals will be added on the two outside panels. There will be five total murals from left to right. They will be: The Baptism in the Jordan, The Proclamation of the Kingdom, The Crucifixion, The Transfiguration, and The Wedding Feast at Cana.
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Sean Wilson
