Apr 27, 2023

Greetings,

If you have not had the chance to visit our Tomb scene constructed by Terry Tolson, stop by soon. It will soon be disassembled to make way for a new installation coming in May.

IN OTHER NEWS:

HOUSE: Previously I wrote to you about a house that we bought, the purpose of which would be to unite all of our offices under one roof. Progress is slow, but moving forward. The diocese is, of course, involved and having three parties working on this arrangement instead of just two, especially when separated by quite a distance, tends to lengthen the amount of time it takes to do things. But move they inevitably will and we expect that the situation will be worked out around the middle of next month.

CONSTRUCTION: By the time you are reading this, we also expect the courtyard re-bricking project to be finished, weather depending, of course. In addition to that project being finished, they were making some minor repairs on our brick parking lot, the first work, minor as it is, done on the lot since 2015. In the meantime, our other lots have had to be sealed and patched a few times. I would also like to add that this crew was a great hard working, polite group of guys.

There isn’t really anything new to say about the Mull Avenue construction except that I would like to extend my gratitude to you for making do. This past Monday saw repaving activity still at a standstill as the water lines continue to take longer than expected. But our shiny, new fire hydrants are sure pretty! Speaking of fire hydrants, it looks as though there is some forward movement on our new fire station on Hawkins. And a great amount of activity continues around the old Perkins property.

ORGAN: The floor organ that was once in our church where the contemporary choir sings seems to have found a new home. In storage during this time thanks to a generous, kind and very patient parishioner, we have been trying to find a new home for this instrument but one thing or another has always come up making the project untenable. But this new opportunity seems to be taking shape nicely enough that I will share it with you.

Our seminary would like to have the pipe organ in one of two places that are being considered. One would be in the Sacred Heart Chapel, which is not the main chapel for the seminary, but the old seminary high school chapel that has been in heavy use during the time the main chapel has been under construction. Situations necessitate the old chapel being used from time to time and is in need of a good instrument for worship.

The other option would be to place it in a music rehearsal room so that seminarians could take lessons and practice or have choir rehearsal conducted when the chapel is otherwise in use. Either would be a great place for this little organ and would be nice to have a bit of St. Sebastian making beautiful music at our seminary.

RETREAT: Speaking of the seminary, just a heads up that I will be gone from the parish the week of May 15th as I will be conducting the retreat for those who are about to be ordained to the priesthood. Please keep that in your prayers.

MEETING: This coming week there is a meeting for the priests associated with the extraordinary form Mass with our Bishop. We did not receive an agenda, so I do not know what to expect. The last I heard is that we are in a holding pattern until August and that has been the directive under which we have been operating. More news coming.

God bless,

Fr. Valencheck