Parish Update from Fr. Don Archambault
What’s happening in the “D”?
 
More pointedly, what has been happening in Northwest Detroit at Corpus Christi Parish this past summer? The answer is:   A LOT has been happening.
Construction has been happening:

• Installation of our air conditioning, new boiler and upgraded electrical service began in late June and was scheduled to be completed by mid-August. But because of the summer storms, DTE has delayed their part of the work. We hope to have the work completed in the coming week. Pray that it is…and bring a sweater to church to keep warm!
• Beginning in October, we are doing a major replacement of asphalt in the section of our parking lot between the school and church. It should take a week. The cost will be $65,000. Pray that the weather and construction goes well.

• The summer was bookended with our Corpus Christi Feast Day celebration which included a wonderful multi-cultural celebration at mass and then a small plates feast served up by four of our younger adults who are professional chefs. We ended the summer with a parish picnic where food, outside games and other activities filled the Sunday afternoon.

• The month long SAYA summer camp was once again held for the youth of our community at the location of our Outreach Center.
• Two major clean ups happened in O’Hair Park. The first was in May with over eighty people getting the park into practically pristine shape. The second happened last week when the Eight Mile Boulevard Association and The Mercedes Benz Financial Group brought fifty volunteers brought in fifty volunteers to clean up around an abandoned school which is near the park.
• Twenty youth from the Catholic Youth Work Camp spent four days cleaning seventy front lots of abandoned homes in the square mile. O’Hair Park Community Association then hired a company to cut the lawns.
• O’Hair Park also participated in the Arise Detroit Project and had many activities for youth and their families in the park on August 2. Then just  last week they ended the outdoor activities by hosting a fall gathering in the park offering free food, games, music, and neighborhood celebration.
• Other things happening in the background for O’Hair Park was receiving over $19,000 in grants, getting their non-profit status from the federal government, setting up a web site, face page, neighborhood communications system, and membership packet.

• We at Corpus Christi have always been known as a welcoming community. But now the Evangelization Commission is encouraging us to be an INVITING community. The challenge to each one of us is: EACH ONE BRING ONE. Each one of us is invited to bring one guest to any of our activities this year. Start thinking about who you can invite.
• A new program of knocking on doors in the neighborhood begins this Saturday. Armed with a new INVITING brochure and newly designed Corpus Christi shirts, they will spread the Good News to those in our neighborhood who do not have a church home.

• After five years of declining Sunday offering income, we reached our Sunday collection goal for the year (the fiscal year ends on June 30). THANK YOU to all who helped us reach our goal. Our Sunday collection is the primary way we support the multiple activities in the parish and community.
• The Stewardship Commission continues to invite us to express our thankfulness to the Lord by sharing our many gifts and talents to help build up God’s kingdom here at Corpus Christi. We invite all to fill out the Covenant form you receive at mass and become part of effort to do the work of the Lord.
• The money management course is once again being offered for those who want to get out of living in a financial crisis and find ways to live within their budget.
• Kennith Troupe, a long term member of our community, has been hired part time to help with the stewardship effort by developing a workshop for us who need to prepare our wills and also for encouraging people to leave a donation in their wills to help build up the long term endowment for the parish.

• Next week we begin the twelfth season of Generations of Faith and continue our reflections on the great men and women in the Bible. Our guest speaker will be Deacon Alex Jones, a charismatic and faith-filled man who converted from evangelical Christianity to the Catholic Church. He is in love with the Lord and is extremely happy to be speaking on Abraham, whom St. Paul calls our father in the faith. Make sure to sign up you and your family for all five sessions of Generations of Faith.
• Preparation for the sacraments of first communion, confirmation and entrance into the Catholic Church (RCIA) begins this month. It is IMPERATIVE that parents make sure their children grow in faith. The parish is offering excellent opportunities for our youth. However, we need parents, godparents and grandparents who are the leaders in faith to do their part in sharing the God-way of living with them. If we do not teach our children the right way of living, others will show them the way to destruction.

• St. Vincent de Paul and our Christian Service volunteers and staff continue to assist those in emergency need through the food depot three times a month. They also help people work through the “system” of assistance with such problems as the recent water bill fiasco.

 
Yes, MUCH is happening in the “D”…and in Northwest D and Corpus Christi. The Spirit is alive and well. THANK YOU for your deep involvement and commitment. And, as St. Paul says so well, “May the Lord bring to completion the good work He has begun in us.”