At Home, On Mission: A Letter from the USA
“There’s no weekend where someone doesn’t tell me, ‘Father, this parish is so welcoming; we felt at home here. What’s your secret?’” Father Rich says. The secret is not really a secret at all; rather, it’s the fruit of almost a decade’s worth of hard work, prayer, and – of course – dependence on the Holy Spirit.
In 2016, Christ the King Parish was ripe for renovation. It was only a few years after Sacred Heart, Saint Peter, and St. John the Evangelist parishes were combined into Christ the King Parish. Hoping to invigorate the churchgoers and to unify them into one parish, Father Rich and others on staff read “Divine Renovation: Bringing your Parish from Maintenance to Mission” by Father James Mallon.
The book, which centres on Father James’s own experience as a parish priest in Nova Scotia, Canada, details his journey into renewal, “renovating” his own parish, and discovering what “going on mission” really means.
