Dear Parishioners,

I want to take a moment to update you all on the implementation of Faith in Our Future. As many of you know we are part of Cohort 18 with Mother of Mercy Parish, Asbury Park and St. Anselm, Wayside. We have a collaborative relationship which means that we are finding ways to aid one another in our ministries. We have decided to focus on three particular areas: Hispanic and Haitian Ministry, Youth Ministry and Promoting our Catholic schools.

What you may not know is that as part of the process, we are establishing subcommittees of people already involved in those ministries to best determine how our parishes can aid each other. I admit that this is an odd request since our parish currently has neither a Youth Ministry or a Hispanic or Haitian Ministry. But, we are trying to do our best with what we have. If anyone is interested in helping with any of these subcommittees or has any questions at all, feel free to contact me at toddcarterpriest@gmail.com.

These are the goals for the Haitian and Hispanic Ministry: To raise awareness of worship opportunities in other languages, to promote ESL classes at Mother of Mercy Parish, to aid the immigrant community by providing information on healthcare, immigrant and workers rights and how to navigate the academic infrastructure to support the education of children.

The goal for Youth Ministry: To engage the young people of the parish with their faith. The cohort wishes to foster social awareness by sharing what the individual youth groups do but on a larger scale, coming together for larger events. These would include, social events, sport events and other fellowship programs.

Lastly, the cohort would like to support the schools within our parishes, both at Holy Innocents and Mt. Carmel. The cohort wants to advertise the schools in order to increase their enrollments. Also, the cohort desires to generally increase awareness among all three parishes about our schools. We can do that by advertising school events in all three locations and generally making them more visible.

Again, if these are goals that you agree with and would like to support, please contact me. We have a lot on our plate and the more people that are engaged means that more success this cohort will be in cooperating with each other. It has been a real challenge for me to find people for these subcommittees. But, we do not ask for the situations that God puts us in. We should always strive to do the best with what is given to us.

Peace,

Fr. Carter