The Future of the Sharing Community
Dear Parishioners,
For the last two years, three wonderful Parishioners, Renee and Ira Schwidel, and Kim Pierce - with the generous assistance of Mike D'Arrigo, and several committed cooks and servers - have been managing our Sharing Community. Organizing a corps of volunteers, creating schedules, communicating, procuring and preparing food, and serving it, is yeoman's work. Although they were committed to it in heart, mind and spirit, lives change, children grow into men and women, and with all this, so do demands on time. So, after two years of a professionally, seamlessly, and expertly run program, they organized their last meal in June. I am grateful to the three of them for their personal sacrifice and manifestation of love, and for stepping forward to take it on when it seemed it was over.
Over the course of the last few months, several Parishioners have expressed an interest in developing a program, inclusive of our youth, to feed the hungry. So, I ask you to consider the future of ICC's role in the Sharing Community, and in feeding the hungry. Are any of you who have voiced your interest in a program for feeding the hungry able to volunteer to run such a program?
As you think and pray, I also ask you to keep something foremost in your hearts - if you are interested in taking on this role, or beginning another Ministry for the Hungry, but you are not sure you would be fully able to commit to it, please remember that a commitment to feed the hungry, is not a "program", it is a Ministry. A commitment to work in a soup kitchen, is a commitment to feed our brother and sisters - and our absence means that there are those who will not eat that day. Let me stress, that this is a commitment to be of service, and if volunteers do not come forward, we will have to assume that this ministry here has run its course. It is important work. It is beautiful work. Any questions? Speak with Renee or Kim; they can explain how a soup kitchen works.
ICC's future at the Sharing Community, so lovingly managed by wonderful people such as Mercedes Augusto (RIP), Ann Richter, Ira and Renee Schwidel, and Kim Pierce, lies in the balance. We will need to let the folks at the Sharing Community in Yonkers know our Parish's role by the beginning of August. Feeding the hungry and clothing the poor are Corporal Works of Mercy, and there is little else that pleases God more than helping the poor.
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Fr. Ashman