Dear friends:

It's been an exciting year as pastor of St. Colman's -- the number of households registered is up about 30% over last year and almost everyweekend we are welcoming adults and children through Baptism. If you come to Church here, you'll see that our congregation is looking more and more like our neighborhood -- long-time residents, new refugees, young people, people whose roots are in countries from all over theworld. They come to St. Colman because we welcome them, we celebrate them, we are here for them. Our Outreach Ministry answers the door -- and because of donations to benefit the poor, the 20 calls for assistance we get every day are met with concern and kindness -- and help with rent, utilities, bus passes for work, prescriptions. Ourneighborhood meal serves 400 people every month through the generosity of volunteers from St. Christopher, Our Lady Help of Christians, St.Colman and 20 other parishes or high schools in our area.

But the past year has been troublesome in some ways.

We've spent the entire year discerning how best to be 'Church' to our neighborhood while being required to close at least two churches in our Cluster, which includes Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, La Sagrada Familia, St. Stephen, St. Procop and us.

After 15 months of examining finances, capital improvement needs, the health of our ministries, our ability to gather people from all over to work for the people of our neighborhood, it was decided to recommend to Bishop Lennon that St. Colman remain open to cluster with La Sagrada Familia and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and that St. Stephen and St. Procop close. We are saddened by this decision because we know how much these parish communities mean to the people that support them. But we are eager to bring a new vision of ministry to our area and to welcome the people of St. Stephen and St. Procop into that vision.

But this recommendation is not final. Our Cluster Team is working on the report outlining our decision that will go to the Bishop on November 15. We must show the Bishop how we will serve the area through our clustered ministries, but also how we will be able to afford to keep the three parishes open. By March of 2009, we will learn whether he agrees with our recommendation or not.

And that is why we need your financial support.

On November 15, we will celebrate St. Colman Day, beginning with 4:00 Mass followed by a reception in the Hall. We hope you can come! We will be celebrating the priests of the parish -- those who grew up here, those who served here. Fr. Mark Dinardo, in his 50th year as a priest, will be the homilist for the Mass and will speak particularly about Fr. Vincent Haas, Pastor of St. Colman from the mid-1960's to the mid-1970's. Fr. Haas was well known for his work for racial equality and for social justice.

In conjunction with St. Colman Day, we will once again have our St. Colman Day Raffle! Last year, your support helped us to balance our books -- we raised almost $50,000 on this raffle alone.

We know that the Bishop’s decision about clustering will be influenced by the health of our financial condition. Here’s what you can do to help:
Please call our secretary Linda Vega for information, to buy your tickets or to get a few tickets to sell. Thank you for your generous support!

See you on November 15!

Bob Begin
(216) 651-0550
2027 West 65 Street
Cleveland, OH 44102

Saint Colman Website