|
Holiday
celebrations can be challenging when you’re unemployed or confined to
your home due to illness. It’s also difficult to celebrate when
one member of your family is in prison. That’s why St. Joseph
parish in Clintwood works with the Baptist and United Methodist churches
to provide a Thanksgiving dinner for the community each year.
Members from each church prepare food and bring it to a central location
where the dinner is held. This year’s Thanksgiving dinner was at
the United Methodist Fellowship, where dinner was served to around
eighty guests on Thursday, November 23. Volunteers also delivered
meals to shut-ins. Christine Ramirez, pastoral coordinator at St.
Joseph, believes in the positive effects of the ecumenical partnership.
“It helps the people know that Catholics are an important part of the
community,” she declares. It’s also a concrete communication of
God’s love. The
members of St. Joseph are now collecting toys for Christmas. These
will be available at the food bank so families can pick them up. In
addition, Christmas gifts will be provided for the fifteen children in
the community whose parents are incarcerated. “We don’t want to
set ourselves up as the great benefactors,” asserts Christine, “so
these gifts will be distributed to the parents well before Christmas.”
This way, the parents get the gift of being able to give to their
children. |
If you’d
like to be a part of our twin parish’s effort to spread God’s love to
those less fortunate, you may bring your contribution to Sunday’s
collection or to the parish office. Just be sure the envelope shows you
want it to go to the twinning project. Any amount is appreciated!
St. Joseph’s
parish members will celebrate Christmas on December 23 with a Mass and
Christmas party this year. Christine’s gift to each family will be a
framed photo of former pastor Fr. Bob Rademacher. A lifelong
advocate for peace through alleviation of poverty, Fr. Rademacher went
to Washington, DC to accept a lifetime peace award, and the framed
photos commemorate this event. “It will be a nice remembrance
for them (the parishioners)”, comments Christine. She also
expressed delight with our “avalanche” of warm clothing. Her
parishioners were overwhelmed with gratitude, and even Christine got a
new winter coat! She broke her shoulder earlier this year, and was
pleased when she found a warm coat that was not too heavy for her sore
shoulder. “God’s blessings
to you all!” |
