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What's going on with St. James Parish?
Archives for older posts on the
Friends of St. James Website
are posted below.
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At a United Parishes meeting during the Summer of 2006, we watched a video from the Voice of the Faithful conference
in July of 2005 where Fr. Don Cozzens and Fr. Tom Doyle discussed their thoughts on "A Shared Priesthood." Fr. Cozzens
and Fr. Doyle express important and relevant words for our times, and I encourage everyone to see the kind of leadership
that the Church so desperately needs today as articulated by these two brave men. Copies of these videos can be ordered
through Resurrection Tapes. Click here to find more material from Fr. Cozzens.
Tuesday Sept 19th
Please remember Shayne, Angela, and Shayla Thomas in your prayers as their lovely daughter Christi earned her angel wings
this morning at 9 am. May God bless them.
For those who check on reflections, some new ones have been added to the Words of Encouragement page for 9-25-05, 11-20-05, 2-19-06, 4-13-06, and 7-16-06.
Thanks Sue!
9-6-06
Congratulations to Mark and Angie McGinnis on the birth of their son Alexander James, born August 31st at 2:32 PM!!!
Alex weighed in at a hearty 8 lbs 4 oz and measured 21 inches long. Welcome to our newest parishioner!
9-6-06
A prayer for the Thomas Team
Christi Thomas is a 9 year old girl who just 4 years ago, at the tender age of 5; was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma.
It is a rare cancer of the nervous system which spread quickly around her heart, spine, and bone marrow.
Our two daughters go to ballet lessons at Dance Unlimited with Christi and her younger sister Shayla. Christi's
amazing courage and spirit is only matched by that of her family and friends whose love for eachother is impossible to miss.
In the weeks prior to the annual June recital at the Ritz Theater, it seemed questionable whether Christi
would be able to perform. She bounced back and took 1 week to prepare for the recital and performed brilliantly!
Watching this brought tears to my eyes and still does whenever I think about it.
As things would turn out, Christi is now back in the hospital in Philadelphia enduring radiation and heavy medication
for severe pain. She and her family can use our prayers at this time.
May God embrace the Thomas family and comfort them with His divine love.
8-30-06
Well it would appear that more time is needed yet in Toledo. I have a few more announcements to make in the meantime.
United Parishes "Together We Can" conference is scheduled for Saturday October 14th beginning at 9:30 and will be held
at the American Legion in Fostoria. Cost is $10 per person if you you pre- register and includes lunch, beverage, and
snacks. To register at the door, cost is $15 per person. To register online, go to United Parishes Upcoming Events.
08-16-06
A few quick notes while Toledo takes their time to get organized.
First, reflections have not been posted here since April. In order to keep posting them, I need them e-mailed to
me so that I can get them uploaded to the site. If you have delivered a reflection that is not on the "Words of Encouragement" page and you have an electronic copy of it, please click this link to e-mail it to me.
Also, we are looking forward to our parish picnic at the Hull's on Sunday August 20th. It is hard to believe that
summer is almost over! Come and celebrate a wonderful summer with your parish family!
4:15 pm est
In the spirit of furthering the recent milestones toward achieving unity between the Roman Catholic Church and
the Polish National Catholic Church, St. James Parish will be celebrating another Mass with Fr. Nowak from Resurrection PNCC
in Toledo this Saturday, July 1st at 8PM at Kansas St. Paul United Methodist Church.
A few recent articles are posted below regarding the efforts toward unity taking place between the RCC and PNCC.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Roman Catholic Church announced that its delegates and those from the Polish National Catholic
Church pledged to overcome remaining obstacles and achieve "full communion between our churches."
Click below for full article:
Polish and Roman Churches Seek Unity
Catholc-Polish National church dialogue makes unity declaration
WASHINGTON- The Polish National Catholic-Roman Catholic dialogue has adopted a "Joint Declaration on Unity" that
looks toward full communion between the two churches.
The declaration summarizes steps toward union already taken and highlights other steps that might be taken to draw
the two churches closer together.
Click below for full article:
So to summarize: a group of Roman Catholics, will be celebrating Mass with a group of Polish National
Catholics who are working toward unity at a Methodist church whose gracious congregation has opened their doors and hearts
to us!
In these times where residents want to keep their communities centered in God through their local
church, it is pleasing to see that the bishop's efforts to take these churches that the communities have given so much to
sustain, is resulting in ecumenical outreach that is unprecedented in recent years!
4:13 pm est
Fr. Nowak from Resurrection PNCC will be celebrating a Mass in Kansas at St. Paul United Methodist Church on Saturday
June 17th at 8pm. There will be no Sunday Prayer service this week. Send us an e-mail using the "contact us" page
for more details.
June 15th, 2006
It has been 100 days since the church has been locked and access to a sanctuary for worship in Kansas has been denied.
We have also allowed the diocese 100 days to do the right thing and return our personal belongings to us. This is much
longer than we should have had to give them to do the right thing.
We would much rather go to church than go to court.
4:07 pm est
Monday April 10th:
Day #35 since our personal items were locked in the St. James building by the Toledo Diocese. Still no response
from the Diocese regarding our hand delivered written request and numerous phone calls on this matter.
Bishop Blair; I have it on good authority that you are breaking the law sir.
4:04 pm est
4:02 pm est
A special note of thanks to Russ Lemmon for mentioning our prayer vigil again earlier this month. Thank you for
treating our parish and efforts with respect.
If the diocese had to say "enough is enough," my question is:
Enough of what is enough? Enough prayer? Enough faith? Enough community? Enough churches?
Enough places of worship? Enough planting of seeds of faith where the soil has proven fertile? Enough what exactly
did they have to say there was enough of?  Lemmon Drops: 3rd bullet point down mentions St. James prayer vigil.
3:59 pm est
3:58 pm est
Tuesday
morning, March 28th
Debate over
protection of children will take a critical step today as committe votes on SB17:
The Ohio House Judiciary Committee will take
steps to end the process of discussing whether or not children should be protected from predators today. In almost all
organizations where children are in the custodial care of someone besides their parent or guardian, it is standard practice
to report any signs of abuse or neglect. Yet Clergy are given the benefit of the doubt, as they are "trusted" members
of society.
To maintain this
trust, clerical leaders must be forthcoming when there has been a violation of what is considered to be acceptable behavior
within their ranks. When the unacceptable behavior falls to the horror of what is classified as predatory, than that
initial horrifying act becomes the first phase of a pattern of abuse committed against all who trust clergy. The lack
of accountability for those who commit horrific acts against our most vulnerable members of society has broken any trust in
the Church as a competent care provider for children. Yet committee members talk for 8 months before deciding if any
action should be taken to correct this.
Such complacency
maintains a dangerous status quo. Failure to act will mean that necessary progress on this will require more lives to
be destroyed, will require the unnecessary and completely preventable creation of future cases of abuse; more unspeakable
hurt for victims, survivors, and their families.
Yet the very institution
which desperately needs to restore their credibility uses all of their resources to maintain the status quo which enabled
this breakdown of trust, and pathological pattern of secrecy which protects offenders who do the harm.
The institution
may not want to come clean; but failure to hold them accountable continues the cycle of abuse by enabling the enablers of
abuse. The ripples in the pool will spread wider and wider until they reach all the way to the shore, and everything
in between is touched by what set them in motion; both figuratively, and literally.
How many more
lives must be touched in this way before the necessary accountability measures which exist within all other institutions of
our lives are put in place where they are so desperately needed to keep our children safe?
Transparency and
accountability may be difficult for some to swallow, especially those personally involved; but they are on the path to restoration
of credibility and redemption. Any act to avoid transparency and accountability is a denial that credibility and redemption
are necessary to demonstrate competent leadership. Opposing transparency and accountability is an effort to continue
the pattern that enables abuse; and those who support such opposition are complicit in the otherwise preventable abuse of
future victims.
For more information, see link below:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-20-2005/0004220011&EDATE=
Writer thankful that man hired by Bishop Blair didn't harm mom:
| Click on the image to read |
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Rural Churches are an Important Part of Diocese:
| Click on the image to read: |
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Thursday evening; March 23rd.
Last night a parishioner from St. Jude (closed December 31st, 2005) participating in the newly formed Resurrection Parish
of the Polish National Catholic Church in Toledo, shared a bulletin with me from St. John's in Toledo. The bulletin
contained a brief write up on the back which described Resurrection as an effort spear headed by former members of St. Anthony
in Toledo, now closed. The write up goes on to proclaim sympathy for members of closed parishes, but then derides them
for having an attachment to their former buildings; thus causing them to stray from their faith.
We hear so much about sympathy from the hierarchy. How many times have we now seen the statement on TV that says:
"While the Diocese understands that the closing of parishes is indeed difficult and painful, the
process assures everyone a nearby parish." (Enough times that I could type it here from memory)
It is not our purpose to seek sympathy from the hierarchy, but since they keep bringing it up, I'll speak to it.
What is being demonstrted by the hierarchy more than sympathy or understanding, is a complete disregard for what a parish
is. We have always said that buildings do not make parishes, and the very fact that Resurrection holds Mass in locations
other than the former St. Anthony building demonstrates something far more important than a building.
The desire proclaimed by the hierarchy for us to "move on" does not square well with filling the void left when vibrant
parishes are closed. "Moving on" from vibrant Christian faith rooted in community is a bit like asking good people to
do nothing when Christ's presence is threatened. As Edmund Burke once proclaimed, "all that is necessary for the triumph
of evil is that good men do nothing." The problem isn't that we can't "get over it." The problem is that the Church
believes it would be good if we did "get over it."
Calling the creation of a parish an act of detachment from faith is an oxymoron as ludicrous as it sounds. It
would be laughable had such statements not actually come from clergy charged with the mission of proclaiming Christ's promise
to his people. The very existence of Resurrection is not only a testament to the faith of the individuals involved,
it exemplifies that a parish exists in community before it puts up a building; and after one is taken away.
On Thursday, March 16th, a call was placed to the Chancery regarding our personal items since there was one more day
to meet our requested deadline of Friday, March 17th. The Assistant who took my call said she would look into it and
call me back. Today is Monday, March 20th and here I sit.
On Friday March 10th, a written request was sent to the Spielbusch office for the return of personal items locked inside
the church building.
I've had a few folks ask why things were inside the building to begin with. I'll briefly explain that the items
in there were used for prayer, reflection, and worship. During the vigil, many different people were coming and going
throughout the day, and sometimes several people were reading the same books, or wanting to listen to the same hymns or Rosary
CD's. So these things were kept in there so that all of the participants could share them with one another.
Also, musical instruments can become damaged and/or cause damage to vehicles when constantly transported to and from
church as was originally being done. And so all items were labled by their owners if put in the church. Also,
it was reasonable to assume that should the day come that the building would be permanently locked, that we would be offered
the opportunity to collect our things.
I'm hoping to hear something soon about recovery of these items.
Thank you to:
FOX 36 Toledo, 13 ABC News, NBC 24 News, Toledo 11 News, The Toledo Blade, The Advertiser Tribune,
and The News Messenger for your coverage of our candlelight prayer vigil.
3:35 pm est
March 6th, 2006. Never Forget..............
"Bishop Blair said they are free to continue to pray and to come in and out of the church as long
as they want,"
An innocent error, or an outrageous attempt to mislead faithful Catholics?
Read and decide.
On Friday January 6, 2006; the The Catholic Chronicle printed statistics for Mass attendance on page 5 for 2004 and 2005. They used
them to justify this front page headline: "Mass attendance increases in 2005." To anyone who would glance at the
totals which indicate a net gain of 3918 in attendance from 2004 to 2005 and read the article, this would sound like good
news. If only it were true.
Several parishes, mostly the ones that have been closed in 2005; have NR (not reported) in their 2004 attendance
column. So when they use 0 for all closed parishes in 2005, and subtract the 2004 number (in their example, NR=0), they show
a net loss of 0 in attendance. But when you use the actual number of people who attended these churches in 2004, and
subtract it from 0, the numbers tell a different story.
All one needs to do is go directly to the Toledo Diocese website to find this little gem which shows that all of the closed churches did in fact report their 2004 attendance.
So when we run the correct numbers, we find that the very opposite of the headline they printed
is true. Unfortunately, Mass attendance decreased from 2004 to 2005. And not just by a little. They reported
an increase of 3918. There was actually a net decrease of 4862. Ommisions of data in certain places skewed the
results by 8780! Perhaps the headline for the retraction of their front page article should read:
Closing of Parishes Results in Decreased Mass Attendance. Just a suggestion.
The letter below will be sent to the Chronicle on behalf of St. James. You can also click to view
a spreadsheet which cleans up their flawed study and clears up this matter (hat tip to two parishioners from St. Joseph and
St. James for compiling this information quickly. Your hard work does a great service and is very appreciated!)
Letter to the Catholic Chronicle Editorial Staff
Mass Attendance Correction Spreadsheet
HE Said WHAT!?????
We feel compelled to respond to the
fact that we have been offered a very candid glimpse into the thinking of Fr. Ted Miller; a Priest who is responsible for
ministering to our parish community while facing one of the most heartbreaking and significant milestones of our
lives. For those who are not already familiar with this interview, I cannot post Miller's comments here, as the purpose
of this website has always been to spread our message of Christian devotion to saving our beloved parish; and to inspire hope
for our parishioners and others who are in similar situations. If you would like to attempt to stomach these comments,
they can be found here:
Vigil May Be Last Hope For Area Church; News Messenger June 3, 2005
We feel that the nature of these comments
is readily apparent, and therefore do not require comment from us here. Instead, we will offer the following
question as our response: Is Fr. Ted Miller the only Priest out there who sees it this way? We pray for the sake of
all other parishes that he is.
We are grateful to our brothers and sisters from
Holy Rosary for their show of support during these times.
And with that said, we will get back
to the business at hand.
May God Bless You,
Steve and Kim Johnson
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Archived News Articles (from September 2004 to March 2006)
Toledo Blade: Locked Out Parishioners Still Hurting, Hopeful
13abc News: Church Locked Up
Fostoria Review Times: Locked Out (requires free registration)
Toledo Blade: Diocese Locks Doors on Parishioners
St. James parishioners keep the faith; Toledo Blade 1-10-06
Sign of hope at closed parishes; Boston Globe 12-22-05
Vatican stops diocese in taking parish assets Boston Globe; 8/11/05
A slap at loyal Catholics; Toledo Blade editorial July 27, 2005
Open door lets hope slide in; Toledo Blade July 8, 2005
The Catholic faithful must take a stand; Toledo Blade July 27, 2005 (Lettter to the Editor by Chris Cremean, scroll to middle
of page)
24 area parishes unite to strengthen their message; Review Times July 1, 2005 (requires free registration)
East Toledo parish makes final effort to prevent closing; Toledo Blade June 22, 2005
Final days loom for area parishes; Findlay Courier June 24, 2005
Praying For A Miracle; Review Times June 7, 2005 (requires free registration)
Parishioners Meet To Save Small Rural Church; Toledo 11 News June 3, 2005
Parishes Slated For Closure Mull Options at Meeting; Toledo Blade June 1, 2005
Last Year For St. James As Home Parish For Choral Group; Fostoria Focus March 20, 2005
Parishioners Reactions Run The Gamut: Hurt, Anger, Dissapointment; Toledo Blade September 14, 2004
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St. James Catholic Church, Kansas OH
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