June 29, 2025

Dear Friends in Christ,

Tuesday, July 1, will mark the one-year anniversary of our coming together as a family of parishes in the “Partners in the Gospel” plan to renew Catholic life in Western Washington. We will complete the first year of a three-year process, eventually becoming one canonical parish in NE Seattle. Next week, I will reflect on some of the highlights of this first year, but for now, let me offer some thoughts about our main ministry, which is to gather for the celebration of the Eucharist every week.

As most of you know, our four parishes were previously served by four priests, which enabled our people to gather for eight Masses on the weekend. The assignment a year ago of two priests, Fr. Duc and I, made it practically impossible. More to the point, several of our Saturday Masses were very lightly attended, so the decision was made to reduce the schedule to two Masses, with new times for the four on Sunday. My thanks to those whose 5:00 pm Saturday Mass was dropped, who adjusted to gather at one of the other Masses offered at that time. And that’s precisely the point of the Partners in the Gospel plan, which is to see ourselves as one faith community, welcome and able to celebrate Mass wherever it is scheduled in our family.

This slow but steady transformation continues on July 6 when the Sunday morning schedule of Masses changes to 9:00 am and 11:00 am. This small adjustment was made to allow the priests more time to visit with people before traveling to another parish for the 11:00 am Mass. Some people have expressed the concern that 11:00 am is too late to accommodate their families’ Sunday schedule. Again, the vision of Partners is to provide a range of Mass times that work for most families. We continue to discuss adjustments in September, enabling our overall Mass schedule to be even more accommodating for the broadest range of parish households. 

Whenever and wherever we gather for Mass, my hope is that those celebrations will be well attended and marked by the following: Truly beautiful music that engages everyone’s participation; homilies that consistently inspire spiritual growth; liturgical ministries that are staffed by a wide range of parish volunteers; and warm, friendly environments where all feel welcome. May it be so!