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We invite all St. John XXIII Altar Servers and their families, as well as all youth interested in altar serving, to an evening of food and fun. It will be Saturday, June 10 following the 4:30 Mass at St. Nicholas and 5:00 Mass at St. Mary in the St. Nick's Courtyard,
This past ten months of the unification process for our parish has been very productive! To highlight a few milestones, we chose a new name for the parish, St John XXIII, we formed a new staff, we have our new logo, bulletin, and website, we formed the new parish pastoral council, and a new parish finance council.
The unification subcommittees were very busy creating proposals and structures for the Parish Pastoral Council to consider as we develop a pastoral plan. In particular, the Liturgy subcommittee offered proposals for new mass times for both churches under the St John XXIII Parish. There are four main reasons for changes in our mass times:
The Pastoral Council reviewed these recommendations from the Liturgy Team and with much discussion and representation of multiple viewpoints from both St Mary and St Nicholas council members, we offered our advice and consultation to our Pastor Fr Jean-Philippe. With prayer and discernment, he made the following decision, and we as a council are in full support. The following changes for the weekend masses are: St Mary Saturday 5:00pm- English Sunday, we will have two masses:
St Nicholas: Saturday:
Sunday, mass times are changing to:
The following changes for the weekday morning masses are: St Mary:
St Nicholas:
We will continue to discern about the Saturday Vigil Mass at both churches. Taking into consideration the October count, the Disciple Maker Index survey results, and other input, we will make a final decision on whether it continues to be feasible to have two vigil masses. We thank you for your prayers for the parish, for the Pastoral Council, and most importantly for Fr Jean Philippe as we continue to build the new reality for St John XXIII Parish. The new mass times will be effective on July 1, 2023. We will post this announcement on our website so you will have a chance to review the mass time changes again. Today we ask Saint John XXIII, pray for us. Thank you. For decades our faith family has generously supported local agencies dedicated to the material, psychological and spiritual care and wellbeing of mothers, both before and after delivery. Baby bottles were distributed after Mass on Mother's Day. We asked that they be returned on Father’s Day weekend with donations that will go to three local agencies:
You can donate to the collection any time by using one of these links: Thank you for your generosity! The parish is now using one list of e-mail addresses for sending out parish communications electronically (the St. Mary and St. Nicholas lists were combined just before Easter). That, combined with the bankruptcy of our bulletin printer, has brought us to a new plan for electronic communications in the parish.
All who were on an existing list (in either parish) will receive the St. John XXII weekly bulletin in their in box at the end of each week. That e-mail will be labeled as the bulletin. Occasionally, there's a need to get the word out about changes in planned events, special notices from the Archdiocese, upcoming funerals, or time-sensitive information that didn't make the bulletin deadline. E-mails about these will be sent as "breaking news" alerts separately from the weekly bulletin e-mail. These won't go out on a schedule; they'll only be as needed. The Communications Team and staff are still determining the name for these alerts. All who are on existing e-mail lists will also be signed up for these messages, but the lists are being maintained separately from this point on. If you'd like to be removed from one list or the other, there will be "unsubscribe" links at the bottom of the e-mails that you receive. If you don't want to receive any more communication from the parish, you'll need to unsubscribe from both lists! If you're not receiving any of our e-mails, you can sign up for them here. Finally, the e-mails previously sent to St. Nicholas parishioners with links to the weekly live streams will not be sent any longer. The live stream will always be available from the bottom of the home page, www.stjohn23evanston.org. Thank you for your patience with all of these changes! Fr. Jean-Philippe would like parishioners to know of the changes reflected in this letter from Bishop Casey on the end of COVID-19 restrictions:
With the public health emergency attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic set to expire on May 11, effective on that day all remaining Archdiocesan COVID-related restrictions and policies are to be lifted. With that action:
While the temporary COVID Sick Day Policy will cease, employees are strongly encouraged to stay home if they are sick or symptomatic with any illness, regardless of diagnosis. Additionally proper hygiene, including washing and sanitizing of hands, is always encouraged in group settings like parishes, offices and schools. Though the health emergency is over, we must continue to respect each other’s preferences regarding personal health and safety. Some parishioners may continue to refrain from attending Mass in person for perceived safety concerns. Some parishioners or coworkers may wear masks out of an abundance of caution, particularly if their health is already compromised. Some ministers or parishioners may be uncomfortable receiving the Precious Blood from the common cup. In all situations, our pastors and ministers must act prudently and charitably toward each individual and the entire assembly to whom they minister. As always, how we accompany one another is a reflection of the love and care of our Lord within each of us. If we have learned anything over the past few years, it is with patience, understanding and gentleness that we must walk with our neighbor. Thank you for your steadfast commitment to the spiritual and physical wellbeing of those with whom you work and serve within our local Church. Bishop Robert Casey Vicar General Parish photographer Deb Winarski has edited and posted sets of photos from this year's Confirmation and First Communion liturgies. Selections from those sets are available to all parishioners on Facebook (you don't need a Facebook account to view these albums!):
Confirmation First Communion Photos of (most) individual Confirmations and a larger set of First Communion photos were also uploaded to Google Photos and shared with families via e-mail. Those albums are temporary (due to limited cloud storage space). Please download any individual photos that you'd like to keep! If your family didn't receive an e-mail with those links, they are available from Karie Farrell, Juanita Tamayo, or James Holzhauer-Chuckas. As the weather gets warmer and Evanston's gardens come alive, we invite you to consider helping keep our parish gardens thriving. The grounds of both of our churches are kept beautiful through volunteer efforts.
The St. Nicholas Garden Committee, led by Mary Moring, maintains an e-mail list to let interested volunteers be a part of planning its work days. Mary reports that work days this season will be Saturdays at 10:00 a.m. and Thursdays at 2:00 p.m., unless it's raining. They'll start on May 11. Learn more and sign up for the list on the group's web page. If you're available to help tend the meditative gardens around the St. Mary Parish Center, contact Karie Farrell (kfarrell@archchicago.org). Dear St. John XXIII parishioners, Much has happened since we received a request from the Archdiocesan Pastoral Migratoria to accompany a Haitian family of 4 seeking asylum here in Evanston. We received this request because of our vibrant Haitian community. As you know there are hundreds of families seeking asylum. The family we are sponsoring is a Haitian mom, dad with 2 toddler sons, Miguel and Jean who are now being housed in a hotel with cooking facilities in Skokie. This is due to the rapid response of our pastor Fr. Jean-Philippe who designated the Holy Thursday collection to help. Our Haitian parishioners have stepped up locating the hotel and providing the family with food, diapers and other necessities. Some have given financial assistance. Our parishioners are truly Easter people! We are following what the early Christians did, giving witness to their belief in the Risen Christ. It continues to amaze! However, we are just beginning…the ongoing needs are great, finding an apartment, helping with rent and utilities for 3 to 6 months, furnishings, food, diapers and clothing etc. Mauro Pineda at the Archdiocese has helped greatly, connecting them to benefits they are eligible to receive. We will continue to look for sources of funding. Many of you have expressed the desire to help financially, therefore a fund is being established with our Peace & Justice Committee. They will receive donations and dispense them as needed for this family and any subsequent refugee/asylum seekers. If you wish to help financially, please make checks out to St. John XXIII parish/ Peace and Justice Committee (Mary Doucette treasurer) write in the memo assisting refugees/asylum seekers. Drop in the collection basket or send directly to the parish (St. John XXIII Parish 806 Ridge Avenue; Evanston IL 60202). You can also donate on the St. Nicholas FaithDirect site. Scroll to the section of the page called called "One Time Gifts" and select the option for: Asylum seekers/ Refugee Assistance. When a more permanent dwelling has been found for this family, we will send out a list of needed furnishings that parishioners might want to help with…and of course our Rummage Sale is just around the corner! Let us continue to be Easter people! Barb Soricelli  A message from the YWCA Evanston/ North Shore. Pope John XXIII school children and members of our Peace & Justice Committee have a strong tradition of participating in this event. Can you join this year?
---------- On Thursday, April 27, at 10:30 am, we encourage you to "Unite Against Racism" by raising awareness about the impacts of racism, building community, and taking action within your spheres of influence. Our Equity Institute’s Unite Against Racism provides the opportunity for communities to unite their voices to educate, advocate, and promote racial justice. Gather with your neighbors and community leaders to encourage and support each other to do the work necessary to become anti-racist communities. At each location, after we gather and share a pledge to continue the work, you are invited to come inside and be part of a discussion with others. Led by YWCA facilitators, these conversations will be 30-45 minutes. We hope you can stay and talk with each other. Evanston: Thurdsay, Apr. 27 10:30 – 10:50 In front of YWCA Evanston/North Shore and along Ridge Ave., in front of Haven School (Green Bay and Lincoln), or in front of your own organization. REGISTER: www.ywca-ens.org/what-we-do/equity-institute/events/uar/ Please take photos of your group and send them to: equityInstitute@ywca-ens.org so we can share them on our website and social media Discussion afterward: 11:00 - Noon Join us at YWCA 1215 Church St, for a community discussion. This has been an exciting week for St John XXIII Parish as we are now enjoying the fruits of many months of planning, designing, and content building of the new communications for our parish. While the Communications Team were all involved with creating the new logo, new website, and new bulletin, I want to give special recognition to a few of our members.
We are grateful to Paula Bodnar Schmitt for shepherding us through the process of graphic design. She spent many hours working with the Archdiocese graphic design team to shape our inspiration into our final parish logo and identity. Her professional skills and her eye for design brought us to final products that we believe are beautiful representations of our new parish identity. Our thanks to Deb Winarski for her leadership on building the new website. Working with our web designer, the staff, a small sub-team, and various heads of ministries and groups, she powered through collecting and organizing content for the website. As our resident photographer, Deb spent countless hours at both St. Mary and St. Nicholas churches during Holy Week and captured the beautiful liturgies to showcase on the website and in social media. Deb is also the primary administrator for the St John XXIII Facebook page. Check it out for photos of parish life. We want to recognize Susan Schaffrath’s expertise on the new bulletin. She and Marti Murray spent many hours reviewing St Mary’s and St Nicholas’ parish bulletins as well as researching 30 other church bulletins to get ideas for content and formatting. Susan then worked closely with a graphic designer to create page layouts and templates that would include the information for both churches and also space for articles, news, announcements, and photographs. Lastly, Shelley Benson has been the engine that drives the Communications Team. Her organizational skills kept us pointed in the right direction and her collaborative nature made our weekly meetings enjoyable and productive. Shelley’s leadership kept us focused on the goal to accomplish everything that we are unveiling this month. Would you like to know more? Check out the new video on our website, which explains the unification process and how we came to our new identity. With God’s peace and love, Rob Sullivan Member, Communications Team Communications Team Shelley Benson, Coordinator Derrick Blakley Jay Larmee Andrea Martinez Marti Murray Linda O’Dwyer Susan Schaffrath Paula Bodnar Schmitt Rob Sullivan Deb Winarski |
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