"BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW!”
In Revelation 21:5 the Lord reminds us that “God is always about making things new.”
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we hear “So, anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.”
To embrace Christ is to open ourselves to new life, to die to old ways and rise to new – and this fall, St. Matthew’s Parish is carrying out the call to make things new!
As a Pastoral Staff and in our leadership roles we have been trying to go “outside the box” to meet the needs of our very busy parishioners and be sensitive to the lifestyle we live today.
In June, we bid farewell to Pat D’Amico, our Faith Formation Director and her husband, Deacon Larry, as they entered into retirement.
We are happy to welcome back to our Pastoral Staff Moira Dziomba, who shared the position of Faith Formation Director a number of years ago. After a stint teaching religion at Pope John H.S. in Sparta, she has come back to offer her deep faith, people skills and Theological training as Faith Formation Director for grades K-11.
The transfer of Fr Kamil in June was a sad loss. We wanted to be sure that the programs he initiated for our children and youth continue. A number of enthusiastic parents have come forth to train and support new altar servers, to enhance our worship, and to enable our children to be actively involved in worship.
Rose Abbey has stepped forward to take over a large part of our Youth Ministry: AXIS Teens, service projects and Youth Masses. Rose and her family, the Walls, have been active and supportive parishioners from the inception of our community. She has been involved in leadership in our SEARCH retreat program and is a member of our Music Ministry. By profession, she is an elementary art educator, as well as being young mother with three little guys. We welcome her joyful enthusiasm and deep faith!
To complete our additions to our Pastoral Staff we welcome Fr. James Platania as our weekend Assistant. Fr. James brings a youthful energy, valuable life experience and Theological depth to our community. A native of Sussex County, Fr. James studied at Boston University and worked for a number of years in the business world prior to discerning a call to the priesthood. He studied at the North American College in Rome and last year he received his STL degree in Biblical Studies from the Gregorian University, Rome. He has been appointed as a member of the faculty at Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University in South Orange. He is eager to get involved in the parish life of St. Matthews.
Other Initiatives:
We will be trying more and more to make use of technological opportunities in our parish through our website and phone APP. Please make sure you have the APP downloaded and notifications enabled to maximize this important tool.
In an effort to minimize meetings, we plan to communicate more and more through YouTube presentations that can be viewed when convenient. Our first one will be available to the parents of our Faith Formation children prior to the first class meeting on September 11th.
In order to help parents and young children appreciate and better understand the Word of God at mass, we have been fortunate to have three young couples serve as leaders of the Liturgy of the Word for Children for grades K-4, at both the 10 AM and 12 noon liturgies on Faith Formation weekends.
For non-Faith Formation weekends we will focus on family involvement and homilies directed towards children at the 10 AM liturgy. A number of young couples will be reaching out to families to be involved at these masses as gift bearers, assistants to the ushers and greeters. Of course, we will continue to be uplifted by the beautiful voices of our Children’s Choir!
The 12:00 mass will be dedicated as a High School Youth mass, making use of the wonderful talents of our Youth Choir and a greater involvement of young people in various liturgical ministries. This will be one of the ways the AXIS Youth Group can be involved as well. Since we will no longer have the Sunday 5 PM mass, we have asked the members of our Praise Band to join with our Youth Choir in providing more contemporary music and instruments for the 12 noon mass.
As a parish we are blessed with a growing number of very young families. Recently two enthusiastic young women came forth to form and lead a group entitled “Play and Pray,” for mothers with small children, to meet regularly and to offer an opportunity for play dates, prayer, support and service.
Last year a number of our leadership groups took on the task of reading about new approaches to parish renewal to discern which direction St Matthew’s could take in the future. Our Parish Pastoral Council has decided to take on a more long range and collaborative planning role by meeting three times a year for an extended time on weekends and to involve the pastoral staff. We have changed the name from “Pastoral Council” to “Parish Leadership Team.” More to come on this!
Lastly, as a community we are always growing and are blessed to have the opportunity to welcome many new members to our faith community. These new people come with fresh and different experiences of Church and offer their unique gifts and talents. These new people are always a breath of the Spirit, “making all things new.”
So as you can see, because of the commitment of so many, St. Matthew’s parish is thriving and for that I thank everyone who has stepped forward to strengthen our community in any way. It is the commitment of time, talent and treasures of so many that makes this parish such a vibrant community. In God’s kingdom there is always more to do so if you want to share your gifts let me know because “God is always about making things new.”
God bless you all!! Fr. Dan