At Your Service

With summer’s end, the parish moves into another gear in ministry. Once again it becomes clearer that the community lives at many levels within itself. In one sense, the parish, for many people, is what they see and experience each week. The most obvious experience is Sunday liturgy. On a practical and theological level, that makes the most sense for that is who we are, God’s People in Christ before the Father, enlivened by the Holy Spirit. That’s who we are, what we celebrate, and that is who we become as a worshipping community.

The Sunday liturgy is, in the words of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the “source and summit” of Christian life. In the parish, Sunday Eucharist is the place from which we move and, at the same time, the culmination of all our parish activities. The Eucharist is a dynamic process of being Church and living the Christian life.

To assist in this process of living and being Christian is a pastoral staff, whose role is to serve the various needs of the parish both within itself and as outreach in the community around us. This staff is there to help all the members of the community become what they are called to be. The parish, in this view, is the community of the laity, believers in the Church, within which the pastoral staff serves and lives.

The pastoral staff is a reflection of the ministerial call and life of the whole community. One takes its identity from the other. The parish takes its practical shape in the various ministries and professional ministers who serve the community. In this light, one might learn what the parish is by looking at the ministerial leadership. The topside down view of Christ the Redeemer would show a variety of ministries: the pastor, the parochial vicars, the parish administrator assisted by various people, several directors of religious education, a director of adult formation and outreach, a music director, and several workers who do very practical tasks at CTR.

Who and What They Do
The Pastor in any parish is assisted by Parochial Vicars. These are priests assigned by the Bishop to celebrate the Eucharist and the other Sacraments, to teach, to instruct, and to assist in the various needs of the parishioners. The Pastor and Vicars at CTR are members of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement: Frs. Donald Howard, Bill Schmidt, and Arthur Johnson.

Fr. Lino Rico, a priest of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, serves with them as he specializes in Hispanic ministry.

The Parish Administrator is Donna Ata, who guides the practical running of the community. Her work is as diverse as is parish life from the most practical to some pastoral work: building maintenance, scheduling of events, staff supervision, as well as frequent contact with parishioners. Two secretaries, Amy Harr and Juan Sanabria, are the front line of contact and assist in the parish office. Juan serves also as assistant Parish Administrator and in Hispanic ministry. Dick Clarke serves as our bookkeeper.

The educational face of our ministries is reflective of our needs and services. Two Directors of Religious Education serve in overseeing our English language programs K through High School, Harvesta Greene Williams and Jay Cuasay, respectively. Shared between them are the Children’s Catechumenate and the Catechumenate for Adults. Sacramental Preparation is a shared responsibility. Jay is engaged in Confirmation preparation for candidates on various levels, junior high school through high school. Renee Bhatia helps parents to prepare their children for First Penance and First Communion. A complement to our English efforts is carried on by Dora Marroquin, our Coordinator of Spanish Religious Education. A new comer this week is Mary B. Lyons, our Director of Adult Formation and Outreach, who will develop program support in ministry training.

Our experience of Church is usually in worship. Central to that experience along with the priests is our Director of Music, Diane Kingsbury. It is Diane who trains and orchestrates our various choirs, instrumentalists, cantors for service at worship on Sundays. She serves at the keyboard on both organ and piano, as well as in a planning function for weddings, baptisms, and funerals.

There are three men on staff who make life possible for the community in preparing and cleaning our community spaces. They are the unseen heroes behind the working of the parish. The parish has a weekday man in the person of Sonny Lacy, a nighttime person in Pedro Otero, and a recently arrived weekend person with Max Leiva.

Such is the parish staff, here to serve you. They are a phone call or a personal request away. Together, we are Christ the Redeemer Parish.

CDH