Page 4 • Wednesday , February 22 , 2023 • The Hammonton Gazette
The Rev . David Rivera outlines St . Mary of Mt . Carmel Parish ’ s plans
RIVERA , from Page 1 dedicated and named after a saint and St . John ’ s Society is one of those and it ’ s been around but it ’ s been kind of dormant and quiet but the last couple of months , it ’ s kind of come back to life and adding new members . They ’ re having a trip in May to New York , so I kind of want to plug them a little bit because they ’ re trying to build themselves up again ,” Rivera said .
The church ’ s former school building is looking to expand Pre- K offerings to make them more available and to continue to rebuild the grade school as it was shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic and is rebuilding it grade by grade .
“ A pretty big project for our parish is to begin to rebuild the grade school little by little so by putting together a school board , something like that to give guidance and to move forward ,” Rivera said .
Part of the five-year plan outlined by Rivera to grow the number of people in the parish is focusing on evangelization , which is trying to get new members . The plans include reaching out to Catholics and Christians who do not go to church anymore and their strategic planning is how to go about reaching them .
“ We have a large group of Catholics who just don ’ t come to church anymore that we do want to focus on but we don ’ t want to just focus on them , we do want to focus on new members , too ,” Rivera said .
Rivera said that the parish is starting Stephen Ministry , which is focused on house visitations for the elderly , shut-ins and the sick . The goal of the ministry is to organize and grow that part of the parish outreach better so that they are training a group of people to being able to visit their fellow parishioners and churchgoers that are unable to come to church and need company for someone just to visit them and spend some time with them and in some cases , simple advocating for medical attention or paperwork help .
“ The church has some ability to help them with some of that stuff so that ’ s a ministry that we ’ re going to be starting this year . That ’ s also going to be a help to keep our members connected to
the parish , even if they can ’ t physically come to church , we ’ re going to go to them ,” Rivera said .
While the church has added live streaming of their church services , Rivera emphasized the need for more human connection through the church , such as personal encounters in their homes as a part of their growing outreach .
Rivera does visit homes and businesses to bless and pray to people , as evident from an encounter at Retro Renegades where Rivera and the church blessed their store . Rivera wants
to expand on those efforts . The church has a group of religious sisters and nuns that does services in Spanish but they plan to expand those services in English as well so one of their big goals is doing more physical outreach through homes .
At the moment , the church has been focusing more on the cooking and language classes and hopes to expand during the next year . More activities include the choir as well as the St . Vincent de Paul Society , which focuses on the needy who run the food pantry , in which they are still looking for new members to join the pantry .
Other groups include bereavement sessions for those who experienced the loss of a loved one . The church holds a once-a-month rosary and prayer as well as other outreaches for those who are grieving . A youth group meets once a month on Fridays and there are a lot of different things and activities the church offers .
The number one thing that Rivera wanted to emphasize is for
See CATHOLIC , Page 17
LENTEN SERVICES
2023
LENTEN SERVICES
Ash Wednesday
Wednesday , February 22 Masses : St . Joseph Church | 7:00 am , 8:00 am , 4:00 pm , ( English ) 7:00 pm ( Spanish ) St . Anthony of Padua Church | 7:00 pm ( English ) Prayer Service and Distribu 琀 on of Ashes : St . Joseph Church | 12:00 noon ( English )
Mass on Wednesdays : St . Joseph Church | 12:00 pm ( English ) March 1 - April 5
Sta 琀 ons of the Cross : Fridays : February 24 - March 31 St . Joseph Church | 12 Noon ( English ) St . Anthony of Padua Church | 6:30 pm ( English ) Via Crucis : Los Viernes de Cuaresma Iglesia de San Antonio | 7:30 pm Re 琀 ro de Cuaresma Sábado 25 de febrero a las 5:30 pm Iglesia e Salón San Antonio
Lenten Mission with Fr . Anthony Manuppella “ Strengthening Our Catholic Faith ” St . Anthony Church | 7:00 pm Monday to Thursday , March 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 Join us for 4 Unforge 琀 able Nights !
Palm Sunday
Sunday , April 2nd ( Regular Mass Schedule )
St . Mary of Mount Carmel Parish , Hammonton , NJ St . Joseph Church | 226 French Street St . Anthony of Padua Church | 285 Route 206 ( 609 ) 704-5945 | www . smmcp . net | www . facebook . com / smmcp