Soul Health: Special Edition
An Important Message to All Parishioners
Dear Parishioners and Friends,
After numerous meetings with parishioners over the last few months, on March 18, 2023, the Fabrique of St Thomas More Parish passed a resolution to recommend to our Archbishop Christian Lepine that the parish be closed, and if possible, that this should take place within the calendar year 2023.
The date has not yet been determined, as the Fabrique and parishioners cannot definitively decide to close a parish. This will be done in cooperation with the Archdiocese, and there are still many steps that need to be taken, including a formal vote taken at a general parish meeting, and the Archbishop and his council of priests agreeing to the closure.
This is why the task of navigating the next steps is incumbent on all of us, as a community. This requires the members of the Fabrique to be in constant dialogue with our parishioners, our neighbouring parishes in Verdun, and the diocesan authorities, with as much transparency as possible.
The Fabrique took this decision to recommend the closure of St. Thomas More to the Archdiocese after hearing significant input from the last few parishioners’ meetings, The impact of declining attendance, rising expenses, the maintenance of our buildings, changes to the demographics of Verdun, among many other factors, were all discussed openly and frankly. The fruit of our discernment led us to recognize that the mission of the Church in Verdun would be best supported by one strong English parish, rather than two struggling ones.
This recommendation was not an easy one to make. So many of us here today, as well as so many of our loved ones who have gone before us, celebrated the sacraments in this beautiful church that we have called our spiritual home since 1944.
Many of you have spoken with the Wardens on various occasions, such as at our parishioners’ meetings and after Sunday Mass. To those who have been enthusiastic about helping out, and willing to invest your time, treasure, and talent in building up the Church in Verdun, we give thanks.
The parish or church buildings in which we do these things may be different than what we have been accustomed to, but we are still called to carry out the mission of the Church, in which we were formed and grown in discipleship here at St Thomas More. We will still have the chance to do all those things, in new and fresh ways. Together, we can make this transition a positive and wonderful experience. We can bring our faith, our love, and our hope into a new parish, and have better opportunities to turn the dreams we had for our community here into reality.
Thank you,
The Fabrique of the Parish of St Thomas More
