Page 2 THE REVERE ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 2021 St. Mary’s and Our Lady of Grace: Becoming a New Parish By Stephen W. Fielding A seamless and natural transition to become a new parish is currently taking place between St. Mary of the Assumption Church of Revere and Our Lady of Grace Church serving Chelsea and Everett that includes a beautiful, spiritual Haitian community and a growing Vietnamese community. The newly formed parish will be named with suggestions from Fr. John Sheridan, Pastor, the staff of both churches and the parishioners of each church. Final approval for a new parish name will be made by Cardinal Sean O’Malley, who received three fi - SPRING Go GREEN LANDSCAPING & CONSTRUCTION LLC Lawns Cut CLEANUPS CHEAP FREE Estimates and Fully Insured $100 (COUPON YOUR CHOICE * THESE SERVICES ONLY * LIMIT ONE PER CUSTOMER) NEW SPRING OR FALL FLOWERS * NEW SHRUBS * TREE REMOVAL OUTSIDE PAINTING * JUNK REMOVAL * SIMPLE HANDYMAN REPAIRS * COUPON IS REDEEMABLE FOR NEW CUSTOMERS ONLY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Services include: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * Fertilization * Mulching *Junk Removed * Aeration * New Shrubs/Trees * Demolition * Irrigation Systems * New Lawns/Sod/Seed * Dog Poop Scoping * Dethatching * Tree Removal * Masonry * Lawn Cutting * Stump Removal * Landscaping * Spring/Fall Clean Ups * Gutter Cleaning * Sealcoating * Pruning * New Fences SERVING THE NORTH SHORE 877-688-7667 nal proposals last week. To be clear: Each church will retain its current name and unique history. Both churches have shared one pastor and have been working together for 10 years, the last three as a collaborative. Fr. Jim Barry was initially the pastor for seven years for both churches. Fr. John Sheridan began his tenure as pastor three years ago this coming June when the collaborative was offi cially formed. Being a builder of parishes, relationships and collaboratives, he has brought a special spirituality and deep-rooted faith, joyful exuberance and a very downto-earth personality that is contagious and appreciated by the congregation of both churches. Through his motivation, the designation Morning Star Catholic Collaborative and the collaborative logo were created with participation by all. As a side note: Morning Star is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus. Since both churches are named after her, albeit with different titles, it is hoped that the new parish name will refl ect the collaborative’s current name or one attributed to her. Fr. John recently posted a letter to all parishioners on www.morningstarcatholic.org, the Morning Star Catholic Collaborative Facebook page, presented this news at all recent masses and spoke to parishioners on his weekly Monday video to parishioners called “A Word From Our Sponsor.” He stated, “Most of what we need to do we’ve been doing for years, and in many ways, there will be no noticeable diff erence in the daily life of our families. This will not aff ect our particular churches – St. Mary’s church and Our Lady of Grace church, our buildFr. John Sheridan, Pastor (right) and Linda DeCristoforo, Pastoral Associate (left) are ready to lead St. Mary of the Assumption, of Revere, and Our Lady of Grace, of Chelsea/Everett, through the process to become one parish with a new name. Each church will retain its individual name and identity. ings and facilities and programs will remain as they are – we will have one parish. This merger will simply allow us to streamline what we do and make it easier and better. Both have so much to give – Our Lady of Grace’s history and dedication to social action, Generations of Faith, a strong and vital Haitian community and a strong Prattville community; St. Mary of the Assumption’s energy, social interaction and Faith Formation program – and our united commitment to St. Joseph Parish in L’Asile, Haiti; both parishes serve as homes to groups and organizations; we share staff members, musicians and clergy.” Fr. John continued, “Folks from both parishes have been meeting for months to build a Pastoral Council. The next step for our two parish families is to strengthen our bonds for a strong future for our faith communities. We will also embrace a new name for our parish. Both parish families are dedicated to Mary – and that identity is important to us. I trust that we can, inspired by the Blessed Mother, find the right name. I hope that we will be able to keep the Morning Star in the new name, to be able to keep and share the beautiful image of our Blessed Mother. Please keep in mind that our church names will remain Our Lady of Grace and St. Mary’s – it is our combined parish name that we are developing. I sincerely believe that this is in the best interests of our families, each of us and all of us. There have already been 16 parish mergers since last March throughout the Archdiocese, in towns like Medford, Lynn and Lynnfi eld, so this is far from new. Through it all, I ask your prayers and support. We have been aligning our parish families for quite a while, and we already share so much – it makes sense that at this point, particularly in this rather diffi cult time, we would share even more. Parishioners’ generosity has been a blessing. The fact remains that fi nancially, neither parish can exist on their respective collections, even pre-pandemic, an essential element of a parish’s viability. I’m happy to report that we have a business manager, Linda McElwaney, to help us look ahead. Yet I am concerned that with low attendance in both churches (even before this pandemic), the weekly collections will not be able to cover the basics without going through the funds we have, but combined, we can build on each other’s strengths. The loss of Bingo, the Women’s Club’s Christmas calendar, the Christmas Bazaar, the preschool program at St. Mary’s, the Flea Market and the several fundraisers held throughout the year have taken a signifPARISH | SEE Page 3
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