Calendar of Events.
September 8, 2011. Serra Unites! day of prayer, a new Serra International program created in Singapore and introduced to the clubs at the Ottawa 2011 Convention. All Serrans are encouraged to pray together on September 8, the Feast of the Birth of Mary, Mother of Vocations. The Day of Prayer was announced in the Serra International Bellringer. Information about the program, including specific prayers, is now available at http://www.serra.org/ by clicking on Serra Unites! Serra clubs are invited to make this an annual event to "gather their relatives and friends around them in humble prayer to the Lord of the Harvest that He send out more laborers into the harvest."
September 11, 2011. Going away party honoring Fr. Ed, 2-5 p.m. at Sacred Heart. As most of you know, Fr. Ed has been appointed pastor of St. Mary's in Lowell beginning September 14. Fr. Aaron Ferris has been appointed Parish Administrator at Sacred Heart until the first of the year. At least until then, we will continue to meet on our fourth Mondays at 12:00 noon at Sacred Heart.
September 12, 2011. Evening meeting at the University Club, 5:30 p.m. Our club will gather together with the Catholic Lawyers Association and the West Michigan Catholic Physicians for an evening of fellowship. Monsignor Ancona will speak about the history of our diocese. Mark Kubik is preparing invitations to those guests our members wish to invite. Along with beer, wine, and soft drinks, light hors d'oeuvres will be served.
September 19, 2011. Serra Board Meeting, 12:00 Noon at Sacred Heart.
Looking Ahead...
Sunday, October 9, 2011. Good Night, Desdemona will be presented at Aquinas College at 2:00 p.m. at the Circle Theater. More details TBA. This gathering will take the place of our regular Second Monday meeting.
October 30, 2011. Priesthood Sunday.
June 21-23, 2012. Serra International Convention, Providence, Rhode Island. The theme will be, "The good work begun in you will be perfected unto the day of Christ Jesus." Phil1:6.
Priests' Anniversaries for September.
The September anniversaries are as follows:
Fr. Loc Trinh, 9-19-92 and Fr. Ron Hutchinson, 9-24-94. Once again, thanks to Lee Sullivan for her ministry of keeping records and sending anniversary cards.
Congratulations to Fr. Ed, our Moderator. Congratulations are in order to Fr. Ed Hankiewica, who received the 2011 William E. Cousins Award for Chaplain (Moderator) of the Year at the Ottawa Convention. We thank you, Fr. Ed, for your excellent service to our club.
Reflection Dinner. Mark Kubik received an invitation from Katey Davis, co-director of the Aquinas Fund, for our club's participation in the Reflection Dinner, September 19, 2011, beginning at 6:00 p.m. in the Sturrus Sports and Fitness Center. The dinner will honor Sister M. Aquinas Weber, O. P., Ralph Hauenstein, and Peter Wege. The cost per person is $150. At our August board meeting, our club passed a motion for us to purchase two tickets to the event. All proceeds to the Reflection Fund go toward student scholarships.
Thank-you-notes. We believe we have received all of the thank-you notes from the July 25 evening with the Sisters at 5/3 Ball Park. Nancy King has compiled the notes into a booklet and will distribute them soon. We would simply copy the notes for this newsletter, but the visual effects of the notes would be lost. However, we can pass along excerpts from a letter sent by Sharon L. Loughridge, Executive Director of D. A. Blodgett-St. John's Homes:
July 25, 2011. To the Grand Rapids Council of Serra International, c/o Dan LaVille: Dear Members of the Grand Rapids Council of Serra International: Thank you so much for your recent gift to the children of D. A. Blodgett-St. John's. We truly appreciate your donation of 25 Whitecaps tickets and parking passes...What we never forget, however, is that all of these great experiences for your kids are made available because of generous donors such as you! It is wonderful to be part of such a caring and thoughtful community. Sincerely, Sharon L. Loughridge. Mark Thomson added this handwritten note: Thank you so much for thinking of our kids!"
Notes from the Ottawa Convention Summary:
Credentials for 250 clubs were approved to vote either as delegate or proxy. Quite a few club proxies were disallowed by the Credentials Committee for being incorrectly filled out, not originals, or other infractions of the Bylaws...
7. The District 6 Bylaw Amendment regarding transparency, requiring open SI Board and Executive Committee meetings, passed by near unanimous voice vote...
8. The following Resolution, not on the original Delegate Meeting Agenda, was moved, seconded and passed with hear unanimous vote. "Be it resolved..."
As of now, Serra International did not withdraw the lawsuit. However, Kurt T. Metyko, President of USAC of SI, sends this update:
I would like to bring USA Serrans up to date on wht's happening on the SI lawsuit. The parties met with the judge on July 20 for a status report. As we expected, the meeting was very brief and did not address any of the substantive issues. The judge granted SI a time extension until August 8 to answer USAC's interrogatories and she set another status hearing for August 29. Our attorneys informed us on August 12 that they had received SI's answers to USAC's interrogatories and SI presented a list of its own interrogatories. We are working on answering these now. Our attorneys tell us that the case could go on for several more months or even years.
It was brought to my attention by a club recently that they had received the letter from SI in February saying that "the USA Council's oversight was terminated," but little if anything in response from USAC. In fact, there were several USAC letters responding to the suit that were published in March. They are all on our website under the heading, "USA Council Continues to be Ready to Serve You." The March letter has an attachment with the responses that our attorney felt we would offer publicly to the vague and unspecific allegations offered by Serra International. On April 6 the Court heard Serra International's request for an injunction to stop USAC from operating, and the judge denied it. In fact, the USA Council is till very much open to serve you and needs your dues to cover office salaries and expenses...
President Metyko goes on to announce the introduction of the Serra Unites! program...(as explained in the September 8 calendar announcement of this newsletter)...
As frustrating as these times are, please work even harder on our vocation ministry. I appreciate your concern for Serra. Please keep all Serra leaders in your prayers and remember Blessed Junipero Serra's words, "always forward, never back!"
Kurt F. Metyko, President, USA Council of Serra International
31 Club Weekend. Regarding the August 27 and 28 31 Club visits to St. Patrick's and St. Anthony's in Grand Haven, on Saturday evening Len Gross and Bob Gabridge, along with their wives Robbie and Maria, gave the 31 Club presentation and assisted with sign-ups. On Sunday morning at the 8:00 Mass at St. Anthony's, Nancy Mulvihill and Sara VanderWerff presided.
Of the Sunday morning masses at St. Patrick's, Joseph Scoville writes, "On another front, Beverly Shields, Nancy Mulvihill, Weldon Schwartz and wife Karen, and Joe Scoville were at St. Patrick's in Grand Haven for a presentation at the Masses last weekend. The pastor is Fr. William Langlois. He could not have been more welcoming for supportive. He said something about our presence before Mass, prayed for vocations and for Serra during the Prayers of the Faithful, and gave a little talk after Mass about his experience with Serra. It turns out that his father was a Serran in Muskegon. Also, when he was Vocations Director as a young priest in the 60s, both clubs apparently supported him. I get the impression he is extremely proactive in getting young people to think about vocations. So, he's a big fan and was very generous with his comments. He also wanted to give his regards to "everybody." So, it might be good to mention this at the next meeting. The deacon was Joe Finnegan, who apparently is a Muskegon Serran and knows a lot of people in Grand Rapids, especially at St. Stephen's. He was as nice as you can imagine as well. All in all, a very positive experience. If we ever need help for anything in that area, we can probably call on both of them." Joseph Scoville, U. S. District Court, WD Michigan.
Thanks to all who participated in the 31 Club presentations on that weekend.
Our President's Message.
Fall is fast approaching and we have had a beautiful Michigan summer. Our first fall event is on Monday, September 12 at 5:30 at the University Club, replacing the normal event that day. Monsignor Ancona will be leading us back on a journey of the history of the diocese of Grand Rapids and how our Serra Club intertwines with that history. Along with the Catholic Lawyers,
we have invited the West Michigan Catholic Physicians to join us at this event. Please bring a guest and join us in the networking and fellowship. We will have a special member of the Serra Club in attendance that evening, Ralph Hauenstein.
We have received some more bad news regarding the health of Deacon Dale Hollern. Please continue to pray for him, his doctors, his wonderful wife Isabel and their family.
We are planning on a fun event for Serrans and their spouses at the Circle Theater at Aquinas on October 9 and are looking at a December event as well.
Priesthood Sunday is approaching on Sunday, October 30. This is a day set aside to reflect upon and affirm the role of the priesthood in the life of the Church as a central one. Please get in touch with your Liturgy Committee at your home parish to get an announcement made or some other note to call attention to this event. Here is a link to Priesthood Sunday Planning Guide:
http://www.priestsunday.org/pdfs/sundayplanner2011(english).pdf
There are many great ideas and even lesson plans for CCD classes.
Thank you to each of you for all you do for Serra! Your individual efforts are much appreciated. Mary, Mother of Vocations, Pray for us! Tim Hile, CIC, CWCA
Rosary Promises for September: XI. "you shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the rosary." XII. "All those who propagate the holy rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities."
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