‘Igniting’ Parishioners

Ministry seeks to revitalize Flanders parish
during 30th anniversary year

FLANDERS  This year, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish here has decided to celebrate its 30th anniversary by undertaking a major renovation not by replacing the church steeple or refurbishing the worship space but instead, by giving its already dynamic parishioners and staff a top-to-bottom spiritual makeover.

This rural Morris County faith community one of the youngest in the diocese plans to mark this milestone by embarking on a major process of revitalization that looks inward to its own rich history and legacy so far and to ways of enriching parishioners spiritually but also looks outward to discover new and varied ways of spreading the Gospel and welcoming new people.

Taking the lead in formulating these ambitious plans has been Ignite, a new ministry at St. Elizabeths, charged with doing what the name implies: firing up its parishioners about deepening their faith, getting involved in the parish, evangelizing the Gospel and inviting people to Church. The Ignite team is working to put together a series of programs and activities that will give this 1,600-family faith community its spiritual makeover throughout the course of its anniversary year. The celebration will kick off on Sunday, Sept. 20 with a noon opening Mass, said Joy Rastiello, St. Elizabeths communications coordinator and a team member.

This will be a parish renovation and revitalization, said Father Stanley Barron, pastor of St. Elizabeths since 2005 and diocesan vicar for education. We are trying to get people more involved in ministries in the parish and to address concerns about evangelization that Bishop Serratelli has raised. People here are interested in making the parish grow, he said.

The 40-person Ignite Team has divided the spiritual makeover into four pillars or areas of focus: prayer and worship; faith formation; service and charity; and sharing our faith with others. It has been planning programs and events to coincide with each pillar including guest speakers, religious services and social-justice projects that will take place throughout the anniversary year. Ignite headed by Father Barron will distribute flyers that explain the new ministry and list the anniversary activities on the day of the opening Mass, said Rastiello, a member of the service and charity committee.

To unify all these efforts, the team crafted a new parish mission statement that calls for the transformation of St. Elizabeths through prayer, worship, service, charity and growth in knowledge of our faith, while being guided by the Holy Spirit. Father Barron and Father Cely wrote an Ignite Prayer [see related story], which is being recited at each Mass, meeting and class. The team selected a theme song for the year, God, Light Your World by Chris Rice, which is being sung at Masses. Youth group member Taylor Beck even created a logo for Ignite [pictured below], Rastiello said.

The team has demonstrated its dedication to the Ignite process by committing to a busy schedule of meetings. The four pillar committees convene as often as needed, usually bi-weekly. The steering committee which consists of leaders of the pillar committee, Father Barron and Father Hernan Cely, parochial vicar meets twice monthly. Then, all 40 members come together once a month. The two priests conducted a retreat in March to commemorate the establishment of the team and to pull in the Holy Spirit to guide us and to give us something inspirational, Rastiello said.

Helping to guide some of these meetings has been Allan Wright, academic dean of St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard, Madison. He has been encouraging the team to think strategically about its efforts to help revitalize the parish and evangelize by focusing on a narrow set of goals that it can accomplish. Wright has visited St. Elizabeths twice as part of St. Pauls ongoing outreach to parishes.

The two priests of St. Elizabeths have been spearheading the effort, but its the 40 people of the team together, who are collaborating and searching for ways to get the parish ignited, Wright said. They are asking the right questions. They understand that we are to evangelize in everything we do. Bishop Serratelli says, Evangelization is not one thing that the Church does, among many things, its the only thing it does, Wright said.

So far, the Ignite Team organized a recent garage sale, which already started to promote some of its goals ahead of the anniversary. It encouraged community building as people came from around town to check out St. Elizabeths and as it included involvement from Sacred Heart Parish, Dover and a local Methodist church, Rastiello said.

With Ignite, we at St. Elizabeths want to provide a better experience for existing parishioners and encourage new members to join us, she said.

The idea for Ignite came from Father Barron and members of the parish Administrative Board, who read, Rebuilt: Awakening the Faithful, Reaching the Lost and Making Church Matter. The blockbuster book tells the story of the Church of the Nativity in Timonium, Md., which embarked on a total makeover that helped it come alive in the Spirit again and refocus on its true mission a dramatic several-year transformation that serves as a model for parishes far and wide. The book inspired Father Barron and the board members to start thinking about ways to get people back to church, Rastiello said.

The website of St. Elizabeths, www.stelizabethschurch.org, contains a page that describes the mission of Ignite, which it says was built on a legacy of optimism and hospitality of the founding in 1985.

We want to begin to create a state of Christian growth with purpose-filled activities, the Ignite Team writes on its webpage, noting that every pope since St. John XXIII, has urged us to look back to our baptismal promise of becoming disciples, in deed, as well as word. As we continue to write our story over the next todays, we invite every parishioner to participate in the effort to revitalize his or her personal faith in Jesus Christ. We invite every parishioner to remember that each of us promised to Go out to all nations, whether those nations are neighbors, friends, co- workers, children, or grand-children. We invite each parishioner to make visible the youthful joy of love of God and unselfish love for every neighbor, it states.