The weather cooperated and our parish annual outdoor mass and picnic went ahead as planned. Thank you to Bill Plouffe for the planning and logistical details, to Chris Cummins for transporting the sound equipment and hymnbooks from ASHS and our other Knights who prepared our worship space and barbequed lunch for the large crowd and ran the soccer challenge for the children. Once again Marilyn Mansfield and her staff at Venta were most gracious in their hospitality to us.
One of the benefits of living where we do is the number of golf courses within easy reach. They are popular spots, not just for golfers, but as reception places for weddings. We get requests from couples (and lately by 'wedding coordinators') wishing to book a wedding in our church because it is close to their reception place. The thoughts of Fr. Steve Amesse, pastor of Holy Spirit in Stittsville, are worth repeating in our summer bulletin:
"We will be celebrating a number of weddings this year. In order to be married in our parish (as with all Catholic parishes) you must be free to marry and you must be a registered parishioner of the parish or have a tie to the parish (for example, your parents are registered but you currently live out of town). Marriage, like all sacraments, is meant to take place within your own parish family and does not take place because of location of the church near the reception hall or because one church or the other looks nicer than the one down your street. While I appreciate this policy does disappoint some (and even offends others!), we continue to encourage the sacraments being celebrated by those who belong to our parish family and who have taken the time to register and who, through prayer and sacrifice, help keep our parish family functioning."
All parishioners are invited to gather and tour the new Holy Spirit church at 1489 Shea Drive, opposite Sacred Heart High School on Thursday, 10 July. Mass is at 7:00 p.m. and Fr. Steve will conduct a tour following and then we will evaluate our new proposed building in light of what we have seen. Members of the Building Committee and Expansion Task Force are especially encouraged to participate.
Happy Canada Day!
Fr. Ross