St. Teresa of Avila Parish

The fifteen member cluster planning team of St. Anthony of Padua (Lorain), St. Teresa of Avila (Sheffield Village), and St. Thomas the Apostle (Sheffield Lake) took a break from meeting after we submitted our proposed plan to Bishop Lennon last September. Bishop Lennon responded to our plan in March. Copies of the letter were provided to parishioners. The cluster planning team met on May 27th to discuss the next steps.

We began by rereading the Bishop's letter and were happy that he said our plan was well done! We then began to look at the various areas of our plan and began to discuss how to implement it.

We looked at the bullet "Continue to explore collaborative possibilities to strengthen pastoral care in an equitable manner."

* RCIA: an agreement was made to combine the RCIA programs. All present RCIA teams and pastors will meet at St. Teresa’s to work out a plan and schedule. The Cluster committee suggests the RCIA teams consider having classes at St. Teresa’s with the catechumens and candidates returning to their own churches during Lent for the Enlightenment phase and scrutinies.

* Mission: the combined mission, "A Personal Relationship with Jesus", will begin on December 12th and 13th with Fr. Bill McCarthy and Mary Alice Rossini making presentations at the vigil and Sunday morning Masses at all three parishes. The Mission will be held at St. Thomas from December 14th through the 17th.

* PSR: the PSR programs will not be combined at this time. A discussion about PSR and Generations of Faith and the Bishop’s preference for PSR was held.

* A mass mailing will be sent within the year that will encompass a number of things, including Parish School of Religion (PSR), Generations of Faith (GOF), and other educational options that the Cluster churches have to offer, including a cluster (catholic) school.

We also discussed the bullet "Strengthen evangelization and the social and community services that serve the surrounding area."

* Evangelization: The cluster Evangelization Prayer is used at the cluster meetings and other events held at the parishes. The clusters are also having communal penance services together.

* Social and community services: The second annual cluster picnic is being planned for Sept. 13th. We will have one bulletin for the picnic, but use our own covers and our own bulletin companies. This bulletin would contain all of the Mass intentions, activities and news from each parish.

One of the Bishop’s bullets in his letter approving our plan said "there may be further possibilities regarding possible Church in the City partnerships when the consolidation plans in Lorain have been finalized." This program encourages suburban and urban churches to work in partnership to share resources, including financial support, if needed. We discussed how, while we are not partnered with any specific Lorain church, we are providing support to St. Joseph's Homeless Shelter and are also in communication with Nativity BVM Church, and supporting various ministries at St. Lads. St. Thomas has taken the lead in checking further into this program.

The cluster parishes have been exchanging bulletins regularly through the mail but agreed to switch to email. We also agreed to publish the web sites for all three parishes in our bulletins so parishioners remain familiar with our cluster and can access each other's web sites easier.

St. Anthony's team members: Fr. Joe West, Linda Mathewson, Mary Beth Brailer, Ron Pecora, Joe Smith

St. Teresa's team members: Fr. Bob Franco, Lee Belardo, Bill Bistak, Fred Courtright, Christine Sherry

St. Thomas' team members: Fr. Steve Shields, Stephanie Blythe, Angie Hicks, Janet Larson, John Mack