Faith Families Supporting Each Other

Some of us have had enormous challenges to bear in recent weeks, others are simply tired of being cooped-up, and the rest of us are somewhere inbetween.  We lift up to the Lord each of you and our collaborative parishes in our personal prayers and as we celebrate Mass each day, and I know many of you are praying for each other as well. As we grapple with ways our parishes can minister and support our people in a time of no public Masses or gatherings, we are also appreciating in a new way how St. Martha Parish and St. Mary Parish have been able to strengthen one another in our “Collaborative”. Like so many of you are looking for ways to help your neighbors, relatives
and friends through challenging times, our parishes have helped each other. By praying and working together, sharing many of our programs and our staff, we have helped both parishes to be on more solid foundations both spiritually and financially.

Many other parishes in our Archdiocese of Boston are in less stable conditions as they entered this pandemic, including some parish collaboratives. There are many factors involved, of course, but not all parishes have been as open to truly collaborating and
working together like the people in our parishes have been. Sadly, a significant number of parishes are not sure they will be able to survive the pandemic and the resulting financial crisis. Several collaboratives in other towns are seriously considering a merge into one new parish in order to better allocate their scarce resources to serve the needs of all the people they serve.

Thankfully, that is not the case here. While we have our own challenges, our two parishes are in strong enough condition that Fr. Lambert and I can reaffirm our commitment to helping both of our parish’s communities strengthen one another in true
collaboration. This will not be easy going forward, as we know many of our parishioners are experiencing new challenges of their own. Some have medical limitations that will make it harder to return to active involvement in parish life, and some have serious financial hardships that will limit their ability to support their parish as much as they usually do. But thanks to the number of committed parishioners and benefactors,
so far, our income has not dropped as dramatically as we feared. 

With the adept management of Bill Nash, our collaborative Business Manager, and the guidance of our parishioners on each Parish Finance Council, our finances were in good order before the crises hit, and we have money in our operational accounts to help us
meet our immediate financial obligations.

Please pray for our parishes and for all parishes, especially those who are struggling to survive the present hardships. May the people of parishes that might be merged know they will continue to be ministered to by their newly formed parish, and that they will be
loved and lifted up by the wider Church family, including the people of St. Martha Parish & St. Mary Parish.