The Downriver Vicariate Family of St. Cyprian, Sacred Heart, St. Joseph, Our Lady of the Woods, St. Timothy, and St. Roch is embarking on a Lenten mission to encourage community, prayer, reflection, and renewed faith together as a new Family of Parishes.

Over the month of March, the Family has invited members of each parish to come together one night a week for a series of Zoom talks led by three of their priests. The first three weeks will each surround one of the themes of faith, hope, and love, and on the fourth week, parishioners are encouraged to bring their hopes, questions, and concerns about the Families of Parishes transition for an open conversation about the community’s future.

This series provides a great opportunity not only for the lay faithful in each parish to become familiar with their new neighbors, but also for the ministers of each parish to learn how they can best accompany parishioners through this transition as well.

It’s never too early to start this conversation.

It’s important that members of the parishes feel heard, recognized, and appreciated during these changes, and that they remain assured of their ministers’ care for their spiritual well-being. By offering opportunities for fellowship and candid conversation with the parishes who make up your Family, you as a minister will become more familiar with your parishioners’ needs and anxieties, and your parishioners will feel more comfortable with the transition and their role in it.

In addition to the Family Gatherings that will begin this spring, events and dialogues that you and your sibling parishes provide for your parishioners will lay crucial groundwork in providing comfort during these transitions, and encouraging community among the members of the newly extended parish Family.

Visit the Families of Parishes topic in the EGW community to discuss ideas and new ways to establish community with your new sibling parishes.