Church Family,
What a great weekend of journeying together with our God-- weddings, being together in church, out in the park, and a fun taco dinner ending in rounds of BINGO! Thanks to all who helped organize, facilitate, and participate. We're at our best when we are together.
Speaking of being and journeying together, I am happy to share with you the results from our own Synod Conversations which occurred around South Baltimore this past December and the results of the Synod Conversations compiled by the Archdiocese of Baltimore. I encourage you to spend some time with these two reports. They are an important resource to help us remain committed and to increase our efforts of coming to know, love, and serve God more fully.
As you will see, there are a lot of similarities between what was shared in our own Synod Conversations and what was shared around the Archdiocese. This tells me that we are tapping into some common threads and experiences, a good sign that God is speaking in and through us. Some of the highlights:
Like every other parish and community in the area, we see ourselves as a welcoming community and value that sense of radical hospitality as one of our core principles. Our neighborhood and proximity, though, is a unique gift that we share here in South Baltimore. We readily invite our neighbors to join us at church, whether that's in one of our church buildings, on the sidewalk, in the market, organizing the community around important areas of conflict, and coming together in service. As one parishioner puts it, "Church here happens on the front stoops and the back alleys. It's all around us."
There is a clear need both here in our parish and around the Archdiocese to include women more visibly and in more of a leadership role. We also need to do better at welcoming our neighbors who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer so that they can find in the Church "a safe, loving, and hospitable" community.
As the Catholic Community of South Baltimore we value our weekend liturgies and find them to be uplifting, from the opportunities to serve to the music and overall feel.
We feel a sense of growing positive energy and life in and around our parish community. This is experienced in the big gatherings, outdoor masses, thriving young adult, mens, and womens groups as well as in the growing involvement of our younger parishioners and their families in the weekend liturgies and other areas of parish life. There is, though, a clear desire to engage and offer more opportunities for our older parishioners and find ways to integrate and grow community between the ages of our church family.
Here in South Baltimore our faith in Jesus Christ and our celebration of the Eucharist sends us out in service and animates our engagement in our neighborhoods. "We are driven by our faith to show up in our community." To go further, "our vibrant community provides a sense of stability and constancy. Even when it is hard to get to church, you know the parish exists and is here for us."
Again, please take some time to sit with these two reports. They are going to be important tools as we seek to grow our community here in South Baltimore and to grow together with the larger Church around us. Many thanks to our Synod Team who helped to plan, facilitate, and synthesize our Synod Conversations and to our Parish Council and Parish Staff who will be working to implement this process in our future work of discernment and journeying together as we seek to grow in our knowledge, love, and service of God.
Together in the Journey,
Fr. Josh