Called to Serve

During Sunday morning Mass, Ms Dawn Crutchfield, who is the Director of the Office of Black Catholics in the Diocese of Richmond, spoke to St. E's parish members about her role in sharing Black culture with the Church at large; as well as to take the concerns of the people to the Bishop.

Because the leadership of St. E's will be calling upon our people to form a new pastoral council for the parish in the New Year, Dawn explained the role of the pastoral council within a parish. This council is a group of people who are consultative to the pastor. The direction comes from the parishioners themselves who advise their representatives on what they believe should be happening in their parish. These representatives, together with the pastor, create a vision for the parish; the direction in which the parish will go.

There is a process of discernment that takes place to select people who make up the pastoral council of a parish. We will learn more about that process in January during our monthly Voice of the People meetings.

There were many questions about the role of Fr. Andrew in this process. Dawn explained the meaning of the terms: Administrator, Parochial Vicar and Resident Priest. Because of the many questions, it was requested that the meeting continue after Mass. Mass was then concluded.

During the additional meeting time, Dawn, as the representative of the Bishop, assured us that she would be meeting with the Bishop in the future and would bring any of our concerns to him.