Dear Friends,
As I said last week, I am really glad that we’ve passed through these weeks of special events and happenings, and the related appeals for support. Believe it or not, it is a time for a great deal of stress on the priests as we find ourselves distracted from scripture-oriented preaching to other aspects of parish life. I know they are all related, but each of us tries to help you understand how the particular Sunday readings apply to daily living and we feel it a loss when we have to make a detour from that goal.
I write this to you on Tuesday, 10/27, while on a pastoral visit to the Mission in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Fr. Peter sends his greetings to all. It is a time of great expectations and promise for the Islands. In some respects, the parishes here are still recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Ike last year. The priests on Grand Turk are still living in trailers (not the mobile home you may be thinking of, but construction trailers, more like converted 18 wheelers), the rectory and other house (used as a parish center) having been destroyed. And in Provo, when we have a meal together in the rectory we need to do it in the living room because the roof over the kitchen is just now being repaired.
But the reason I say great expectation and promise is because the way the mission is looking toward the future. We are in the process of putting the final touches on plans for the construction of a new rectory on Grand Turk. The old rectory was about three miles away from the church, on an Island that had not public transportation, which made it difficult for people to get to the priests. The new one will be located right on the church grounds which will make it easier to carry on parish activities, and helping to develop a greater sense of parish community.
In Provo, where the majority of people live and which attracts most of the tourists, hurricane damage less severe. But they have been working feverishly on plans for the construction of a new church. Right now, at the two Masses in English, they may have upwards of seven hundred people, in a church that originally sat seventy and was expanded to accommodate a hundred and fifty (maybe). The rest who come sit outside on benches or stand. Praise the Lord for this problem. The planning process for a new church is now going full steam ahead, moving on both the civil and ecclesiastical fronts to try to accomplish its goal of a new church by December of 2011. If that happens, and please keep it in your prayers, it will be a wonderful sign of the work of the priests, and the people, with the Lord’s help and grace, over these last years.
Not to be forgotten is the presence of Holy Family Academy, the parochial school that serves the parish and the Islands. I had the chance to stop by earlier in the day today, to watch the children prepare for All Saints Day. It is a wonderful experience to see their enthusiasm, as well as the continued expansion of what started out to be a “little enterprise.” It now has students in grades K thru 6, with four additional classrooms from the original, and more on the drawing board.
God has been good to the Mission. Pray He continues to pour out His blessings and that He keeps strong in faith and enthusiasm the five priests He sent here.
God Bless,
Fr. Ron
