I am happy to announce that Archbishop Leonard Blair has requested to preside at Mass at our parish at the St. Elizabeth Seton Campus this coming weekend January 16^th at 9:00 a.m. Most certainly, as the pastoral leader of our Archdiocese, he is very welcome to come and lead us in Eucharist, breaking open the Word, prayer, song and fellowship. We look forward to his presence and the sharing of his wisdom, faith, and encouragement in these very challenging days.

 

You may already know that every parish in the Archdiocese is legally incorporated with the State of Connecticut. The Corporation of Saint Josephine Bakhita comprises the leadership of the Archbishop as President of the Corporation along with the Vicar general as vice president, the pastor as Treasurer and two lay trustees appointed from within the parish.

 

I am very happy to announce the appointment of Kathy Alexander as our new parish Trustee along with Sandy Ambrose. Kathy will be replacing Frank Scalise who graciously and generously served a term as Trustee and has decided to retire from that position. The role of Trustees involves the representation of the parishioners to the Board of the Corporation and involve themselves in the work of two primary councils of the parish: Finance Council and the Parish Pastoral Council. I am ever so grateful for their time, talent, and sincere desire to advise me and promote the mission and ministry of the parish.

 

Due to the sharp rise in COVID cases in the State of Connecticut and Rocky Hill we have been advised, by the Archbishop and the CDC that every precaution must be taken in the next several weeks. Therefore, masks and social distancing are once again required. We do this all, even though we are tired, so that we protect everyone especially the very young and the vulnerable. We do this so that we will not have to close the church like we did almost two years ago.

 

In an abundance of caution, we have decided to pause our Faith Formation classes this week and maybe into the several weeks ahead until the case numbers drop once again to a safer level. We need to protect our children, who are most vulnerable, and our volunteer catechists and staff.

 

Let us pray for a quick and orderly end to this pandemic and its consequences: physical, mental, and spiritual. The Catholic Church Universal asks that all our members be vaccinated and be the lamplighters to a way back into the light after this long darkness. This is a moral responsibility not only to our own personal well-being…but for the well-being of our families, neighbors and the entire community we live in.

 

Finally, a sincere word of gratitude to the Estate of Louise Clarke who has left our parish a legacy bequest of $33,000. Her remembrance of our parish in her estate has blessed the continuing work of our mission and ministry. May she be remembered by our prayers and gratitude now and forever!

 

Peace and blessings,

4 PM Vigil - St. James

9 AM - St. Elizabeth Seton & livestreamed

11 AM - St. James & livestreamed

*Masks are required in our worship spaces!*

All members of the Saint Josephine Bakhita Parish community are invited to join in the faith activity for the month of January. Engage in a service project to help people in our local community. Explore the following links for ideas to get you started. By engaging in service, children and adults alike live out the teachings of Jesus to love and serve one another, especially those most in need of our help. To learn more, Click Here. Please share a description and/or pictures of your service activity to the Faith Formation Office at reo@sjbrh.org.

“We must restore hope to young people, help the old, be open to the future, spread love, be poor among the poor. We need to include the excluded and preach peace.”     

The American Red Cross has launched a Severe Blood Shortage Appeal. All eligible donors are encouraged to schedule appointments now. The next drive hosted at our Parish Center at St. James Church is scheduled for Wednesday, January 12 from 1PM-6PM. Go to www.redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-RED-CROSS to register to give.

In November, the Giving Garden Ministry “put the garden to bed” for 2021. Our yield for this year was just under 600 lbs, all delivered to the St. Vincent de Paul Soup Kitchen in Middletown. We had good participation from the parish, with many volunteers for this ministry that runs over 9 months each year. There are many roles such as planting seeds and planting plants, maintaining the fencing and structure of the garden, weekly maintenance and picking and delivering the vegetables to the soup kitchen. In gratitude, here are those we need to thank for their amazing work on the garden:

After our plant sale this year, any extra plants were donated to the CT Department of Corrections in Cheshire so they could start a garden. Also, parishioner Michael D’Amore generously donated some of his own plants. We also had a donation of a large pot with herbs that the soup kitchen is now able to grow and harvest some of their own herbs on their roof .

We will start again with planting seeds late February. If you are interested in helping out next year, please contact Claire Dalidowitz by email at ckdalidowitz@snet.net.

p.s. Looking ahead to next year, if anyone would like to donate a free standing steel shelving unit to store our pots, fertilizer, etc. it would be most appreciated. We also gravel for the outside border of the garden to keep weeds down. We always need 1 gallon plastic bags with zip closures that we use for delivering our produce. Thanks for your support!