Two Giant Steps Forward

Over the past weeks, we talked about the courageous and inspiring relationship between COR and XJA. There has been dreaming and visioning about a grade school being established at the COR (St. Agnes) school building. A lease was signed recently which is the reason weneed to relocate the COR office. Keep in mind that when XJA opens in two years, according to the lease, there will be office space designated for parish use. So, in a way, the move of the
office is temporary. Hold onto that “temporary” thought for a few moments. First, let’s wonder about renovating the COR convent as a potential site for the parish office.
The COR (St. Agnes) convent houses the Bond Hill Food Pantry in its basement. To become a fitting office, the building would need to be renovated. I have two essential concerns about such a move.
1. A recent renovation estimate is in the neighborhood of $30,000. Like
most of our parishes, COR is not currently meeting its weekly giving goals. To take funds from savings to renovate for a temporary office is not good stewardship. Also,
 2. Such a move does not support the Beacons of Light value of unity. For these two major reasons, renovating the convent does not seem wise. As a note, the convent will receive some basic renovation to make the first floor habitable.

COR Pastoral Council’s Concerns
COR Pastoral Council is concerned that the following might result from moving the office
to Holy Trinity:
1. Parishioners and community members will think COR is closing or diminishing the
Catholic presence in the community.
2. Catholic outreach to the Bond Hill Community will decrease.
3. There will be an inconvenience for parishioners and community members.

Responses to Concerns
While there is a real concern that the uninformed might conclude one or more of the above are true, those who know the facts will know those concerns are not compelling.
1. Far from diminishing COR and a Catholic presence in Bond Hill, establishing a Catholic School and the investment of more than four million dollars at COR will exponentially increase a Catholic presence!
2. St. Vincent de Paul and The Bond Hill Food Pantry will continue to operate as strong as ever. There will be no change in outreach. Only a very small percentage of direct outreach occurs from the office.
3. While there will be small, initial inconveniences as COR Parishioners get used to going to Holy Trinity for business in the office and for meetings, over time, the inconvenience will diminish as a temporary new-normal sets in. I travel the distance between Holy Trinity and COR several times a week. It is 1.5 miles and takes five minutes. Additional
benefits to the Holy Trinity location include more weekly office hours (probably five days/forty hours), more meeting space, and central air conditioning for office and meeting space.

Not an Easy Consensus
I want to thank the COR Pastoral Council for their deliberations. They are torn in the best of ways, concerned about potential misunderstanding among COR parishioners. Even though the consensus was not easy, they have made a consensus recommendation to move the COR Office to Holy Trinity.  Months before COR Pastoral Council reached their consensus, the Crescent Parishes Leadership Team [Fr. Jerry Gardner, Ginny Hans, Matt Jackson, Fr. Dave Lemkuhl, Sr. Janet Schneider, Sandy Schleibaum, Fr. Pat Sloneker, Deacon Bill Staun, Deacon Royce Winters, and Jeff Warren] reached a more solid consensus that the COR office ought to move to Holy Trinity.

In its deliberations, the leadership team took into consideration all of COR Pastoral Council’s concerns above. While the PLT agreed that those issues were important, ultimately, from the logic of the response above it did not judge those concerns to outweigh the goods that will come to our parishes through Beacons of Light unity. Then, the Holy Spirit visited the PLT!! 

A Visit from the Holy Spirit
As the PLT discussed a shared office, Deacon Bill made the observation that Holy Trinity has plenty of room to welcome COR. In fact, he said, we could have two separate entrances and two dedicated offices. We could have separate signage. What a generous offer!
Almost immediately, Deacon Royce was inspired by the Spirit. He spoke up and said (I paraphrase) no, it’s not best to have separateness in a combined office. We need to have one office for both parishes, a combined office, a Crescent Parish Office. That is what Beacons of Light is all about!  Indeed, tears came to my eyes (as they are now remembering and writing) in that moment of revelation. Truly, it was a huge step forward for Crescent Parish leadership.
Recall last week’s bulletin article about how key unity is for Beacons and everything in Christand Faith!

A Second Step Forward
From that awesome revelation about the COR office, we have the opportunity to take another step forward towards greater unity for our entire family of parishes, as all of our offices can now be re-designated. We will have three Crescent Parishes Offices:
 Crescent Parishes Office South at Holy Trinity
 Crescent Parishes Office Central at Nativity
 Crescent Parishes Office North at St. Saviour
I’ll say more about that office re-designation next week.

COR Office Moving to Holy Trinity, A United Office
Therefore, agreeing with the deliberations and recommendations of our PLT and COR Pastoral Council, as pastor, I declare that the COR office will be moving to Holy Trinity and the offices united, a bold and courageous move toward unity led by the people of COR and
Holy Trinity. (Note that St. John and St. Saviour led us even before that as offices were combined there years ago.)

Office Space at XJA for Crescent Parishes
According to the XJA lease, in the new construction at XJA, there will be office space for Crescent Parishes, even as the lease reads the office space will be for COR. When the lease was written, we weren’t thinking enough in a Beacons of Light mindset. Therefore, even as we can’t know the future tomorrow, much less in two years, it is possible that the
Crescent Parishes Office South office may move to the new XJA site.

Two Steps Forward
Please pray for our parishes as we take two significant steps forward in this Beacons of Light unity. May we pass on the good reasons for unifying two offices and re-designating our other two. And may Jesus’ grace, the power of the Holy Spirit, and St. Crescent’s prayers be with us!

Sincerely and with Love in Christ,

Fr. Pat