-
-
Phone & Return ministries
In the summer of 2019, a regular once a month meeting for Evangelization was established and led by Fr. Anthony Sciarappa. These meetings ended once COVID-19 hit. At that time, Jean Pascale organized phone calls going out to over 5,000 families as a way of reaching out to them, seeing if they needed anything, and completing the parish census. This then evolved into what is known as the Phone Ministry led by Pamela Croach (me). We called several hundred families again, got their census information and invited them to receive regular calls. We still have over 100 parishioners we are calling. There are 35 evangelists involved in this ministry. We have had lessons teaching us how to evangelize. One memorable one was via zoom with Bishop Waltershied, the head of Evangelization for the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
The end of April, 2021, Patrick Neve and I offered an overview on the book Return, by Fr. Brandon Vogt. Then at the end of May and beginning of June there were classes to teach how to effectively communicate with the fallen -away Catholic. Those interested signed up to participate in the RETURN Ministry, a ministry to contact our own parishioners with whom we have lost
contact. Involvement in this ministry includes 3 different roles: The Contact Teams who go door to door to connect with parishioners; the Ambassadors who ‘walk with’ anyone interested in returning to the faith; and the Prayer Warriors who have promised to pray for this ministry. Please join with them in prayer for the Contact people and the parishioners they meet. There are 21 RETURN Evangelists, including for this month our two amazing
seminarians, Dan and Chris! We are SO thankful for their willingness to help!
Since then, Patrick has left our parish for another assignment, and Cathy Frank is now the head of evangelization here at HSP. We welcome her and
appreciate her management skills and enthusiasm for evangelization! Under her leadership these two ministries: The Phone Ministry, now led by Barb Strittmatter and the RETURN Ministry led by me will continue to meet. We have also invited the Welcome Committee and Communio to these joint evangelization meetings. These teams will meet the needs of those who are interested in our parish and our faith.
—Pamela Croach
-