July 22, 2024 – Pastor’s Note

I am convinced that the force most likely to undermine Partners in the Gospel is bad communication. In order for our parishioners to engage in the process, own the problems, and be part of the solutions transparency is essential and clearly presented information is necessary. Here is how our different organs of communication are shaping up:

• https://whatcomcatholic.org – Our slowly evolving county-wide website. This is where I will be posting updates about Partners in the Gospel, as well as resources that are helpful for the entire county. You will find three links at the top of the page:
  • Priest Schedule – the official, always up-to-date schedule of Mass times, priest assignments, and priest office hours.
  • Partners in the Gospel – the explanations of the official Partners-related decisions to-date. If you are wondering, for example, about why we are doing the daily Masses or weekend Masses the way we are, or why we decided to combine the entire county in the first place, this is where you would look.
    
    PLEASE NOTE: Sometimes I have to update these posts. I am intending this page to be a go-to information repository, so I am trying hard to maintain one post per topic so that people can quickly reference them. But that means when something gets updated, I do not push out that update via the mailing list. Which is why I am informing you of some updates here. In the last week, we have made significant revisions to Priest Housing and the Daily Mass Rotation.
  • Mass Times & Locations – We are all one family now, so this is a quick reference page for finding Mass and confession times in the county.
• Individual Church Bulletins – we are still months, or maybe years, away from combining our bulletins, so for the foreseeable future you will want to pay close attention to your local church bulletins. These are still the go-to resource for upcoming events and communication around specific locations.
  • Assumption: https://assumption.org/weekly-bulletins.html
  • Sacred Heart: https://shbham.org/flocknote-sign-up
  • Northwest Corner Communities: https://stjosephferndale.org/bulletins/
  • Lynden/Deming: https://www.stjoseph-stpeter.org/bulletins.html
• https://frmoore.com/homilies/ – this is where I post my homilies and Pastor’s Notes (though I have fallen severely behind in the last few months; I do intend to catch up!). Please note that this link is especially essential for the Northwest Corner Communities, as the bulletin company does not post the bulletin inserts (where the Pastor’s Note is printed) online.
  
  As a side note, an Assumption parishioner offered to edit my homily transcripts for a time, in order to help me catch up. (I use an AI transcriber off of my recordings, but it is imperfect.) She has had to step back from that ministry, but if someone else would like to volunteer, it would be a big help.

I am trying my best to stay ahead of communication needs, but I am sure I have a lot of blind spots, too. If there is some communication piece that you really need, in order to feel better about this Partners process, please reach out to your parish administrator, and we will work on figuring out a solution.