Parish Transformation

Saint Anne Parish Transformation

Welcome to this special page dedicated to our Saint Anne Parish Transformation initiative. Visit this page weekly for updates on our meetings and other information.

Join us for our Next Meeting

All are most welcome to join us for our next meeting which will be held on Tuesday, September 23rd at 7 PM in Father Sweeney Hall. There are already more than 40 members of our parish family who are part of our Parish Transformation Team, but your presence and your input are most welcome as we continue our efforts to shape the future of our parish. Even if you cannot join us for our meetings, please be sure to pray for the success of this most important work, and visit this page every week for updates on our progress.

Download our Parish Transformation Workbook

Everyone is most welcome to download your own copy of our Parish Transformation Workbook, even if you are not able to attend our meetings. Please just click on this link:

Parish Transformation Workbook

Saint Anne Parish Transformation Prayer

Loving and Generous God, we praise and thank you for your many blessings.

Please continue to bless our Saint Anne Parish with

a generous, loving, and caring spirit.

Please inspire and strengthen us as we reach out to our parish family.

May we grow in unity, respect, caring and concern for one another.

May our parish learn to put You first in our lives through our celebration and sharing

of Your Body and Blood in the Eucharist.

May we love and pray for one another and be transformed and uplifted.

Please open our hearts through prayer and reflection to be more compassionate

and generous with our time, talents and treasure.

We ask your blessing, guidance, inspiration and strength during our

Parish Transformation.

May we come to know, love and serve you throughout our lives.

We ask this through Christ, Our Lord.

Amen.

Parish Transformation Meeting 2

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Our Parish Transformation Team held its second meeting, and I am very grateful to everyone who has made the commitment to be part of these important meetings. We once again had over 40 parishioners in attendance!

As part of the formation of our team, five members of our parish family volunteered to serve as the steering committee for our meetings: Maria Garcia, Oscar Griffin, MaryLu Larsen, and Tom and Mary Paetsch. They really hit the ground running after our first meeting, preparing presentations to make to the entire team about our Patron Saint Anne, about the history of our parish, about the sacramental life of our parish, and about the overall financial condition of our parish. I thank the steering committee for the tremendous amount of time and effort that they have already put into preparing these wonderful presentations.

At our second meeting, our steering committee began making their presentations to our Parish Transformation Team. Maria Garcia presented a very beautiful summary of the life of Saint Anne. Like many of the earliest saints of our church, what we know about Saint Anne comes from the rich, oral tradition passed on from generation to generation. Maria spoke from her heart about the image of Saint Anne as a mother and a grandmother, an image that resonates so well with the loving and caring spirit of our parish family.

Tom and Mary Paetsch then led our team in a romp through the rich history of our parish family, which began 100 years ago as a mission of Saint Joseph Parish. Some of the members of our team have literally lived their entire lives at our parish, and it was truly wonderful to hear them add their own memories and stories to Tom and Mary’s presentation. While I have heard some of the history of our parish in bits and pieces over the three years that I have been part of this family of faith, it was incredible to hear Tom and Mary weave the history of our parish together from the very beginning to the present. I think that all of us left our meeting Tuesday with a much deeper appreciation for the many great people that have come together over the years to make our parish family the loving home that it has become for all of us!

Our presentations will continue at our next meeting, and this is all just the beginning of what we know will be an honest and open discussion of the strengths we should celebrate in our parish, as well as the changes we may need to make to enable our parish to more fully live out the mission of Christ. If you are interested in joining this important and exciting effort, there is still time to join us. Please attend our next meeting. If you will not be able to participate in the meetings each week, please pray for our Parish Transformation Team. It will be a fulfilling spiritual journey that I am confident will bear much good fruit. You can also follow along the work of our Parish Transformation Team, read all of our updates, and download a copy of our Parish Transformation Workbook by visiting this special Parish Transformation page each week.

May God Bless Us All!

Bullet Points from our September 16th Meeting

Submitted by Elaine Bulanda

• 41 Parishioners in attendance

• Opening Prayer facilitated by Mary Paetsch

• First Presentation - Portrait of St. Anne - presented by Maria Garcia

• Feast Day of St. Anne, the Mother of Our Blessed Mother, is July 26th
• Anne (Hannah) means "Grace"
• Not much found in the Scriptures about St. Anne or St. Joachim (father of Mary)
• Tradition states that she was born in Bethlehem and of the House of David
• Was childless for over 20 years before conceiving Mary
• Dedicated Mary to the service of the Temple at the age of 3
• Patroness of Mothers, Expectant Mothers, Grandmothers, Vocations, etc.
• Encourages us to take seriously our responsibility to raise our children in the faith

• Second Presentation - History of St. Anne - presented by Mary and Tom Paetsch

• St. Anne was a mission church of St. Joseph in Homewood in 1914
• The church was first located at 172nd and Loomis in East Hazel Crest
• Moved to the corner of 171st and Wood in 1949 and Fr. Michael Sweeney was named our "official" first pastor with 190 families
• In 1956 the rectory and annex were purchased
• First Mass was celebrated in the church building on September 29, 1957; by 1967, 900 families were registered as St. Anne parishioners
• School was opened in September of 1957; by 1958 there was an enrollment of 440 students
• Convent was built in 1961 for the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Family
• Convent was converted to the Early Learning Center in 1988
• 5 Pastors:
• Fr. Michael Sweeney - 1949-1970
• Fr. Edmund Schrieber - 1970 - 1984
• Fr. Len Dubi - 1984 - 2005
• Fr. Kevin Birmingham - 2005 - 2011
• Fr. Ralph Zwirn - 2011
• 7 Vincentian Deacons, 8 Deacons and Wives, Sr. Joan Klega, Pastoral Associate
• April, 1975 - adopted a Vietnamese family - Ho Pham - spirit of love and service
• Bower was built in 1988 by Fred Knoll and his brother - the sight of many weddings, picnics and parish functions
• Church Remodeled and Renovated in 1985
• Many Activities which strengthened community ties:  Show Time, Dances, Mardi Gras, Talent Shows, Grand Raffles, Fish Fry, Pancake Breakfast, Coffee and..., Spaghetti Dinner, Bingo, Picnics, Las Vegas Nights, etc.
• Many Spiritual Experiences which foster spiritual growth:  Cursillo, Retreats, Days of Reflection, Centering Prayer
• Many Parish Ministries which support our parish families: Religious Education, Youth Group, St. Vincent De Paul Society, AFF, Deaf Ministry (1981) Ministry of Care, Operation We Care (2004), Men's Prayer Group, Women's Ministry, Women's Guild, Men's Club, SSAC, etc.
• Currently we have 290 families with 38 zip codes

Thank you to all present who added their memories and anecdotes to the 

Parish History.  It was truly an amazing adventure!!!

• Closing Prayer - Scripture: Matthew 13: 44-50

Looking for the pearl of great price in our parish.

Are you willing to sell everything you have to buy it?

Reflect on our ministries.  What are the pearls of great price?

Parish Transformation Meeting 1

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

I was humbled and honored by the tremendous response that our Parish Transformation Kick Off meeting received from our parish family. 40 parishioners attended the kickoff meeting, with seven others asking to be part of the team but who were unable to attend the initial meeting. Our newly formed transformation team included many of the young people of our parish, and, of course, many others who, like myself, have celebrated several anniversaries of our 39th birthdays. In addition to being diverse in age, our team is a wonderful cross section of our parish family, with members of many of our parish ministries, organizations, and still others for whom these meetings will be their first deeper involvement in the life of our parish. My heartfelt thanks to everyone who has made the commitment to be part of our team!

Our parish is blessed to have as its facilitator Deacon David Keene, who is travelling each week from his home parish of Saint Josaphat in the Lincoln Park area to be with us and guide us through our Transformation meetings. At this initial meeting, Deacon Keene was able to meet each member of the team through the introductions which we made to each other.  We reviewed the process we will follow on our journey and discussed how we will use the next few weeks to reflect prayerfully on the mission to which we are called as a parish. 

If you are interested in joining this important and exciting effort, there is still time to join us. Please attend our next meeting.  If you will not be able to participate in the meetings each week, please pray for our Parish Transformation Team. It will be a fulfilling spiritual journey that I am confident will bear much good fruit.

May God Bless Us All!