“See I Am Doing Something New”

Part of the “Good News” is that God is always doing something new in our lives, personally and as faith communities. Sometimes we also can do something new in caring for our parishes through ministries, spiritual programs, and maintaining our buildings and grounds. Both of our Parish Finance Councils have been working extra hard these past two to three years to guide me and our parishes through what could have been an overwhelming time financially. We have done amazingly well due to the prayers and support of so many dedicated, faithful parishioners, the cautious decisions of the Pastoral Team, the federal Paycheck Protection Program, and the generous discounts of multiple vendors over this time. The “cherry on top” has been each of our parishes receiving two major gifts of various amounts to make sure the material needs of our parishes can be met to serve our worshipping communities. I am happy to announce that all of this dedication has paid off in allowing our parishes to address deferred maintenance and to undertake new capital improvements.

At St. Martha, two major renovations took place during 2020 that many of you may not have seen or heard about yet. The renovation of the parish hall flooring and walls turned out beautiful, resulting in a wider and warmer feel. Speaking of warmer, the existing church heating system was converted from steam to hot water, for improved efficiency and decreased likelihood of old heating pipes leaking. Our next major project is repainting all the wood trim and overhangs on St. Martha church and parish center buildings. We recently learned that paint contains lead (at least on the church building), so this became our top repair priority. To keep children safe, the staff have been watching for and cleaning up any flakes that fall to the ground, and we are bringing in painters certified to remedy this problem. We also plan to repair the church ceiling and upgrade part of the sound system. We hope to be able to replace the church carpeting, and plan to install a permanent video streaming system to continue this new ministry with greater quality and reliability as an outreach to those who are homebound and parishioners who are far from home.

At St. Mary, a similar new video streaming system will be complemented by a more significant audio system improvement to finally have clarity in the back of the church. The parish center/rectory is now over 20 years old and needs new shingles and a coat of paint. The church needs much of its wood trim replaced, and once we resolve the rust drip from the metal trim, we will repaint that exterior wall. The most noticeable improvement though will be replacing the carpeting in the church (which is over 30 years old), completing the interior painting, and professionally refinishing the front doors of the church!

Some of these projects are complete or underway, but it will take significant time to get to all of them, and other projects will need attention later. These are just part of our efforts and plans as we continue to welcome more people back into our collaborative parish communities.
- Fr. Joe