GROWING THE MISSION
By Fr. John Jasica
Happy Lent everyone!! This might seem to be an odd thing to say but Lent is a great season of change, healing, hope, renewal and grace. It is a time for us to get back on track, grow in our relationship with Christ, others and to cut off everything that leads us away from being faithful and loving disciples. Lent is a great season to become stronger, more determined and have a better understanding of discipleship.
Our IGNITE THE MISSION Pastoral Plan continues to grow. We are increasing involvement, empowering more volunteer leaders and expanding ministry opportunities to form disciples who reach out to all. Here are a few examples:
(1) LENTEN SMALL GROUP SERIES
This Lent, we have nearly 100 people involved in small groups reflecting on faith, supporting one another and growing as disciples. We have 22 amazing facilitators who are walking with participants supporting one another.
(2) “THE WELL” HIGH SCHOOL SMALL GROUPS
High school aged parishioners are gathering on Sunday nights during Lent from 6:30 to 8:00 PM at St. Ursula Church for a time of prayer, friendship and faith. This series invites young people to reflect on the gift of faith and how it can help them navigate this challenging world.
(3) LIFT JESUS HIGHER RALLY
Our family of parishes along with the Kent-Lambton Roman Catholic Family of Parishes are taking high school youth and adults to an annual faith gathering in Toronto on Saturday March 14th. The theme this year is “NO GREATER LOVE”. All participants will be able to pray together, listen to great speakers and connect with other Catholics from the area.
(4) “DISCERNING DECISIONS” LENTEN SERIES
We are hosting a special Lenten series during our pastoral plan season of “GIFTS & CALL” taking place on Sunday afternoons at St. Ursula Church from 3:00 to 4:00 PM. This includes the Stations of the Cross and a reflection based on fourteen catechetical talks offered by Pope Francis in 2022. This will help us see how faith guides us making important and daily decisions in our lives.
(5) OUTREACH MINISTRIES CONNECT
In early February, our Outreach Lead, Colleen Keane, met with representatives from our various outreach ministries and partner groups who serve and support those in need. It was a chance to reflect on the grace of outreach and to recognize the diverse ways so many volunteers and ministries take place in our family of parishes. This included the following groups:
Interfaith Caring Kitchen, St. Agnes Soup Kitchen, Carlo’s Place, Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Catholic Women’s League, Knights of Columbus, Funeral ministry, nursing home outreach, Communion to the homebound, bereavement support, Funeral Luncheon ministry and Development & Peace.
GROWING GOD’S GRACE
As we grow and strengthen our ministries and involve more and more people as disciples throughout our family of parishes—there is increased demand from the staff and our facilities. This is a wonderful grace that offers hope both now and for the future.
Late in the fall of 2025 I received support from our Senior Leadership Team, Pastoral Council and Finance Committee to hire additional part-time staff to help us grow our mission, communicate and share our faith journey, and support the growing activities taking place at all our four churches. These two new positions will begin as one-year contracts and will be funded from our new IGNITE THE MISSION FUND (proceeds from the sale of St. Agnes Parish). We have allocated funds for staffing and pastoral ministry support (see the January 20, 2026 blog post and bulletin article).
(1) PART-TIME COMMUNICATIONS LEAD
The Communications Lead will help share our amazing stories of faith, communicate ministry and outreach opportunities and help the greater community get involved in the Chatham Catholic Family of Parishes. This includes assisting with the weekly bulletin, content creation for the family website, event posters/pre-Mass advertising, podcasts, blog posts, live-streaming, ministry communications and social media. Many of these tasks are currently done by myself and other staff. It is important to have a dedicated person in this role.
(2) PART-TIME WEEKEND CUSTODIAN
Like all our staff, our custodians go above and beyond making sure everything is ready for our ministries and celebrations. As we grow, we are becoming more busy, which is requiring the cleaning, change-over and turn-around of our churches, halls and meetings rooms multiple times on the weekend. So we are in need of a Weekend Custodian.
Please go to our family of parishes website or the Diocese of London for full job descriptions and further details regarding these two new positions.
