August Pastor Column #3
My dear Kirkland Catholics,
It is a joy for us to embrace Fr. Prem into our parish family this weekend. Please make sure to say hello and to welcome him. We have a group of parishioners and staff who have formed a “circle of welcome” and he will be well looked after in his immediate adjustment period the first couple months for all the key needs. For our many parishioners who are immigrants and have experienced adjusting to living and working fulltime in a new country and different culture, you are of course aware of the challenges during this period of time, and so this support will be invaluable with getting him settled and up to speed.
One area where we could maybe use more support is spending time with him on weekday afternoons these first few months simply getting him acquainted with the area. If many people step up for one or two afternoons over the next few months, we can kind of coordinate a series of “field trips” and ask people to sign up. Woodland Park Zoo, anyone? If you have availability, please contact Ann Vandewark.
Fr. Prem will be actively pursuing his driver’s license in these first many weeks so he can be fully mobile as soon as possible after which time we will be “locked and loaded” as your priestly ministers. In the meantime, we have parishioners who have stepped up to get him where he needs to go, including for Masses assigned at HFK.
Fr. Prem’s primary residence will be the SJV rectory, whereas I will maintain my primary residence in the HFK rectory. The plan for the foreseeable future will be for the normal weekend liturgy rotation to continue as normal. I will split my time exactly evenly between the two parishes on the weekends, meaning if I am away from both parishes for a weekend (as happened with the Alaska youth trip earlier this month, and will happen again in November) we put in place a “rotation-preserving-skip” so that neither parish actually skips its rotation of having the pastor on site, it’s just a week longer for both. We have not determined daily Mass exactly, but at least until Fr. Prem gets his driver’s license, besides Tuesdays - my day off, when we will need to get him down to south campus – for the sake of simplicity and not having to arrange rides for other daily Masses, Fr. Prem will probably have essentially all the daily Masses and funerals at SJV, and I will have all the daily confessions and Masses (save Tuesday) and funerals at HFK. I will maintain my normal office hours at SJV (Mondays, Thursdays, and the Fridays that I have Mass at SJV).
Let’s rally and support Fr. Prem in his transition.
With love in Christ,
Fr. Brad