Parish Profile | St. Anne Parish

Church makes room for growth

JANET SHELTON

Issue 02 | March & April 2009

he church is built. The new altar dedicated. A rooftop cupola beacons to drivers on U.S. 41in Ruskin. Gone are simultaneous Masses in the church and parish center, needed because neither building could hold everyone who came to one of the eight Sunday liturgies.

St. Anne Parish here finally has a worship space suitable for its numbers.

Building the church took 17 years of savings and preparation – a baby baptized during those first planning days is now looking at college. Many wondered if the church would ever be built, so just watching the dedication was emotional. Parish liturgy and ministry coordinator Lorna Carter was nearly moved to tears when she and Daughter of Wisdom Sister Sara Proctor walked through the doors on dedication day.

“My moment was when we were all coming in. I was just in awe. It was, ‘Wow, this is really happening,’” Carter said. “I was telling Sister Sara, ‘Sister, I’m about to cry.’”

The parish has a membership of about 1,600 families. That number is expected to rise as developers continue building new homes in Hillsborough’s South Shore area. People moving into an area in big numbers help a church grow, of course, but St. Anne’s building campaign theme, “creating a legacy of faith and hope for future generations,” suggests action beyond mere waiting. Real parish growth requires a foundation of solid faith formation, and that what St. Anne is building today.

“I have lots of ideas,” said Kathy Nason, religious education resource leader. “I met with Father (John McEvoy) last week. I said, ‘If you don’t like any of these ideas, you’d better tell me.’”

Already, about 70 volunteers teach about 350 adults and children in the religious education program at St. Anne – a number that doesn’t include those in prekindergarten programs. Programs are presented in English and Spanish.

The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults teaches those just coming into the Church as well as older baptized Catholics who have not had first Communion or confirmation. Grade-school children in the parish participate in the regular religious education program, while older children receive faith formation through middle and high school youth groups. The parish hosts vacation Bible school every summer.

Nason said the parish doesn’t always follow the usual “age of the child” timetable for the receiving of sacraments. Two years of preparation always is required for the sacraments of first Communion and confirmation. The ability to understand why they are receiving a sacrament, not what grade the children are in school, determines when it is received. This year, the parish has first Communion groups for second grade, third grade and middle school.

Nason’s work allows her to see how education brings faith alive. She sees children develop an eagerness to receive first Communion because they know Jesus is the Eucharist. She sees teens, some of whom freely admit that their parents are the only reason they are in confirmation class, find in the Catholic faith a light they want to carry into adulthood. Sacramental preparation classes at all levels emphasize loving Jesus, being part of the Church community and bringing Christ into the world through service. That emphasis transforms the children and often rekindles in their parents a love for the Church, Nason said.

“When (the children) receive the sacraments, they beam,” she said. “To watch this process, where they come to know Jesus and realize they are the light of the world, it’s just an incredible feeling.”

The parish also provides avenues directed at keeping the whole community fresh in faith. Everett Michaels said he enjoys attending a faith discussion group that meets after daily Mass on Wednesdays. The group has become a family that also gets together socially, he said. “Saturday we’re going to go out to dinner – the whole group. We have 25 to 30 people or more.”

Some at St. Anne grow in faith through small Christian communities, in which small groups of parishioners get together to discuss a Church theme, such as the Living Eucharist. Others grow through Lent and Advent missions. Prior to the dedication, a special mission was held in English and Spanish for the sole purpose of spiritually preparing parishioners for the changes that come with growth.

Acts of service done in community can be a faith school in themselves. St. Anne runs a food pantry that assists about 800 families and individuals each month, and the parish has an active social concerns committee whose goal is to put the Beatitudes into action.

“We’re trying to get more information out into the community about what goes on,” said Gene Szczepaniak, chairman of the parish communications committee. “There is a broad range of ministries.”

Don Smith found out how one can learn from a ministry when he was asked to carve statues for the new church. Smith made a life-size group piece out of basswood that depicts St. Anne, Jesus and Mary. As he worked on the sculpture outside his home, a lot of Catholics in his neighborhood stopped by to look and talk. It wasn’t a formal program, but the conversations often centered on God, the Bible and the teachings of the Church. Smith said his faith was enriched through his work.

“Not just my faith, but other people’s faith too,” he said. “I had people from the Lutheran faith and the Methodist faith (stop in and talk). … It wasn’t just people of the Catholic faith.”

Shelton is a St. Petersburg–based freelance writer and editor for Gathered, Nourished, Sent.