Building up the Body of Christ with welcoming arms, loving hearts and joyful worship.
Search
-
July 2, 2023Some Good Things to Know About Our New Unified Parish:
- The Archdiocesan canon lawyers temporarily selected the name of our parish to be SS. Matthew and Hubert as part of the decree unifying the parishes. The reason Matthew is listed first is in respect to the Church’s “hierarchy of saints.” Matthew was an apostle and his feast is celebrated in the universal Church as part of the liturgical calendar. In the universal Church, Hubert does not share the same kind of distinction. Each Church, as well as our school, will retain its current name.
- The first order of business will be to create a Unification Team which will include an equal number of parishioners from both worship sites—St. Matthew and St. Hubert. One of their tasks will be to consider whether we should explore a new parish name or keep the one the Cardinal assigned to us. Everyone in the community will be a part of this process. The Unification Team will also explore other things, like looking at Mass times, finding ways to merge our ministry teams, and exploring opportunities socially for us to get to know each other better. If you feel you’d like to be a part of this process, please send an email to either Stephanie Tatara at statara@sainthubert.org or Milissa Bartold at mbartold.stmatthew@gmail.com.
- Both Fr. Mike and our associate pastor, Fr. Matt Jamesson, will be present equally at both of the two churches and our school and will minister to all in the unified parish. We will be at both sites on the weekends and will eventually move into the rectory at St. Matthew. Our three Deacons at Saint Hubert—Steve Baldasti, Allen Tatara and Larry Smith—will also begin to rotate to be of service at both locations for things like Masses and Baptisms. Please note that Fr. Mike will take Wednesday as a day of rest, while Fr. Matt will take Thursdays. You will also continue to see some of our familiar visiting priests, who will continue to minister our weekend Masses.
- Right now, both churches will continue with the current schedule of Masses and liturgical celebrations—both on the weekdays and weekends. We’ll be working hard to ensure we listen to the needs of both sites, which is why the Disciple Maker Index Survey many of you completed will be an important resource. Right now, we’re attending workshops to help us read and interpret the results.
- In terms of making financial contributions, it is fine to continue to make checks out to either St. Hubert or St. Matthew at the moment. Right now, we will also continue to maintain our individual online giving platforms.
- If you need assistance of any kind, please continue to call the main office at either site. In the next weeks we’ll begin to look at what will make the most sense moving forward with input from the staffs.
- The Archdiocese of Chicago has assigned us two important people to help guide us through the general process: Sarah Pelrine will function as our Project Manager and Steve Munoz will help us with all the financial considerations. Both will be on site once a week or so over the course of a year to help us through.