PODZIĘKOWANIA / WORDS OF THANKS
WE BEGIN OUR 110TH YEAR AS A PARISH!

Serdeczny Bόg zapłać! Heartfelt thanks for the work, faith, and dedication of our parishioners.

On this week of All Souls, we pray for our deceased parishioners. We love them and honour them. Wieczny odpoczynek racz Im dać Panie ….

Once again, for the first part of the year we had to navigate around pandemic restrictions. That meant changes to some of our gatherings.

Thank you for all of the patience and kindness.

Even though we have not seen some members of our community as often as previously, we have tried to remain in touch with everyone through bulletins, deliveries, calls, and cards.

We are a small parish, but we show a lot of dedication and love. Thank you!

This year, we were shocked by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

Many parishioners immediately communicated that they wanted us as a parish to do something together.

So far, we have contributed close to $28,000 to Ukrainian humanitarian assistance. We did this mostly through fund-raising, and also through a contribution from part of the annual return on investment from our endowment.

We were able to work with the Cape Breton Regional Municipality to get most of our contribution to our twin city Wałbrzych, Poland, to purchase basic supplies for many of the 4,500 Ukrainian refugees under their care. Wałbrzych has a special designated fund for that purpose. The remainder was given to two Catholic agencies with excellent reputations for helping people on the ground and low overhead: Caritas via the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace and the Catholic Near East Welfare Association.

We also helped as a parish to keep the pilot Community Street Nurse program going, to assist the Whitney Pier Youth Club to get food to families in need, to help the Father Greg MacLeod House to get started, and to assist the residents of Howard House with basic hygiene kits and bus tickets as they seek to improve their lives.

In January, we once again had an online Opłatek and Jasełka where many parishioners learned lines in Polish. We re-enacted the Christmas story in a traditional Polish way, and had a lot of fun doing that!

We also again developed a lay-led liturgy for Good Friday in the absence of a priest being available. It was very spiritual and very much appreciated. Also, thank you to everyone who helped prepare blessed Easter baskets for people who are homebound. It meant a lot.

Although we are a small community, we are blessed by lay leadership and participation. Huge gratitude goes out to our pierogi volunteers, the parishioners who keep our property looking beautiful, who help with cleaning and maintenance, who serve on our Rada and committees, and take care of the church. Thank you to our wonderful Altar Society and to our Polish- and English-speaking lectors. Thank you for the active Facebook page, the website, the beautiful and up-to-date parish scrapbooks.

In May we were able to come together for a beautiful Polish Café and celebration to mark the Feast Day of Mary Queen of Poland.

In September, we marked the third Nova Scotia Polish Heritage Month. Our parish played a leading role. We started at dawn on September 1st. We met here in the church at 6:00am on September 1st for a moving prayer service, with many lay readers, to mark the solemn anniversary of the invasion of Poland and the start of World War II.  We released doves as we prayed for peace.

Together with the St. Michael’s Polish Benefit Society, we marked our parish Feast Day during the month with a beautiful event on September 11th here in the church, as well as outdoors and at the Polish Village Hall.

We also helped to put together a special poster of recommended books for the Month.

The last week of Polish Heritage Month was pre-empted by Hurricane Fiona, but those events have been rescheduled, including a paper-art café event tomorrow at the Polish Village Hall. We also feature some Polish recipes tomorrow and talk about the recommended books by Polish authors. Thank you also to everyone who helped prepare the Polish dinners.

During the past year, we were also able to build some stronger connections with Cape Bretoners of Polish heritage who have not previously been closely connected to our parish, including members of the Polish community in Glace Bay. Last November, for example, we held a walking tour of Polish Hill in Glace Bay and an evening of appreciation at the Polish Village Hall with the Consul General present.

There were big changes this year in our pastoral arrangement. Father Dennis Lamey was transferred at the beginning of September. We made a special presentation to him on behalf of the parish.

The current arrangement is that Father Rich Philiposki serves as pastor for part of the year, when he is in the region. And for the other approximately half of the year, Father Evo DiPierro is our administrator. We are very grateful to both priests. And we welcome, Father Evo.

There will always be a Sunday and a Wednesday Mass. When Father Rich is in residence, there will sometimes be additional Masses and blessings.

May God bless everyone who serves in every way. May God bless our core volunteers who keep the day-to-day work going.

Thank you for your financial support, generosity, and kindness during challenging times for many people.

In the year ahead we will look to do more individual outreach – to bring people back to church, to encourage others to find their spiritual home here, and to continue to be a dedicated community of prayer, of service, and of peace. Let’s all reach out and warmly invite others.

A very important final note: We will mark our 110th anniversary in 2023. This is a real milestone – a story of survival in the face of adversity. We will have conversations with everyone about how to make this a year of extra-special prayer, celebration, and service.

Bόg zapłać!