Just over three years ago, Cardinal Sean O’Malley created the Catholic Community of Gloucester & Rockport as a collaborative of two historic parishes: Holy Family Parish and Our Lady of Good Voyage Parish. Although our parishes share one pastor and one pastoral team, each parish remains canonically independent; has its own finance council; and maintains its own bills, building maintenance, and pastoral programs. Although collaboration between parishes is sometimes challenging, parishioners from both Holy Family Parish and Our Lady of Good Voyage Parish are now praying together, working together, and helping each other live the Gospel, share God’s love, and rebuild the Church here in Gloucester & Rockport.

During the past three years, Our Lady of Good Voyage Parish has been blessed in many ways. Attendance at Mass is good. Parishioners are offering very positive feedback about our adult and youth faith formation programs. More young adults and young families are joining us for Mass. Special events like the penny sales, seasonal fairs, and the Crowning Feast of the Holy Spirit are successful both by raising funds and by building and strengthening our parish as a vibrant community of prayer, fellowship, and service. And although we missed the goal for our Grand Annual Collection, contributions increased by 25% over the previous year! Thanks be to you and thanks be to God! As we count our blessings, however, we must also confront our challenges. Included in this week’s newsletter and posted below is a financial summary for the fiscal year that ended on June 30th. For the third consecutive year, we did not balance our budget. As you know, we have worked hard during the past three years to significantly reduce our operating expenses across the board without weakening the pastoral ministries of our parish. Despite these efficiencies, we could not balance our annual budget. This means that we were forced again to use funds from our savings account to make ends meet.

But in every challenge, we find an opportunity! If we had reached last year’s goal for the Grand Annual Collection, our budget would now be balanced! For this reason, I am writing to ask you to help me raise $45,000 for this year’s Grand Annual Collection. This fundraising campaign is vitally important to our annual parish budget and our long-term financial stability. It bridges the gap between our weekly offerings and our financial obligations: salaries and benefits, insurance premiums, utilities and snow plowing, essential parish programs, and stipends for our senior priest. Every contribution, whether it’s for $10 or $100 will help us achieve our goal of a balanced budget; and every penny raised goes directly to Our Lady of Good Voyage Parish! During the coming weeks, every registered parish family will receive an offertory envelope for the Grand Annual Collection. Please place your offering in the second collection basket during the weekend of October 21st and October 22nd; or mail it to me as soon as possible. Additional envelopes are available from the office or at the doors of the church. As our Grand Annual Collection begins, please join me in praying that each of us, according to our means, will give generously to this all-important fundraising effort.

Finally, please join me in thanking the members of the Our Lady of Good Voyage Parish Finance Council for their dedicated service, good advice, and wise counsel: Patricia Bertero, Jean Madruga, and Ann Marie Noble. Special thanks also to two members of our pastoral team, Claire Murphy and Cliff Garvey, for their hard work and for keeping us focused on making the best use of the financial resources made available to us by our parishioners. Last but not least, my deepest thanks belong to our parishioners for their ongoing prayers and support. Your kindness and encouragement humbles me and sustains me in my ministry. Please know that you and your family are in my prayers. And as always, thank you for your generous support of Our Lady of Good Voyage Parish!

Peace and blessings to all,
Father Jim

Reverend James M. Achadinha, Pastor
Catholic Community of Gloucester & Rockport
Contact: frjim@ccgronline.com

CCGR Weekly Newsletter (10-8-17)
Bringing Home the Word (10-8-17)
Our Lady of Good Voyage Finance Report 2016-17 

Note: On behalf of the Catholic Community of Gloucester & Rockport, Father Jim wishes to sincerely thank Kate Nordstrom for graciously allowing us to use her beautiful painting, entitled “Our Lady of Good Voyage”, on both our website and weekly newsletter during this week. Learn more about Kate and her work at knpaintings.com.

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Knights of Columbus
Third Annual Golf Tournament
Friday, October 13th

All are invited to join the Knights of Columbus (Council 215) for its Third Annual Golf Tournament (best-ball) on Friday, October 13th at the Cape Ann Golf Course. The entrance fee is $125 per person and tee off is 1:00pm. Registration forms are available at kofc215.com or at the doors of Saint Ann Church, Saint Joachim Church, and Our Lady of Good Voyage Church. All proceeds will benefit the charitable works of the Knights of Columbus in the Catholic Community of Gloucester & Rockport. For more information about this special event, please contact Mark Natti at grandknight@kofc215.com or leave a message at 978-281-4820. Please join us! All are welcome!

Learn More: Knights of Columbus (Council 215)

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Our Lady’s Guild
Baked Bean Supper
Friday, October 13th