February 5, 2023

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

MARQUEE – Our Parish’s Annual Fundraiser is coming up.  We invite you to mark your calendars for February 25th.  The theme for our MARQUEE this year is – One for the Generations.  This year our Parish celebrates our 60th Anniversary.  Our MARQUEE celebration is in light of all that has been done to build up our community for the last 60 years.  We are grateful for the work of our MARQUEE Chairs Mike and Rachelle Heser and Adam and Tiffany Heser and for all involved in organizing this  event.  Invitations have been mailed out this week. If you have not received your invitation, kindly contact our Parish Office.

We had a group of volunteers from our Men’s Club and Knights of Columbus support St John Vianney’s Casino Night last Friday – January 27.  All proceeds from that event goes to St John Vianney’s Community Outreach to serve the needy of their community.  I would like to thank all who volunteered who made time to support this event.  It is a wonderful tribute that continues the collaboration and cooperation of our Parishes of St Johan Vianney and Mary Our Queen as we continue our planning for our Archdiocese’s Journey of Faith that involves our Parishes becoming a Family of Parishes.  We ask for your prayers for a smooth transition.

I met up with Morrisey Engineering this week to go through the list of projects that will be taking place this Summer.  We will complete the replacement of the old steam piping in our School this summer.  This involves the installation of new hot water piping with a variable volume terminal unit with a heating water coil in each classroom which connects to the existing ductwork in the upper level of our School this Summer.  The hot water piping in the lower level of our School had been replaced over the last two Summers.  The other part is the installation of a new H/VAC system in the Gym.  This will complete the phasing out of the old steam piping in our School.  The cost of the new H/VAC system in the Gym is $200,000 and we are hoping that this year’s MARQUEE Raise the Paddle would cover the cost of the installation.

We are in the midst of changing our database, communications and online giving software.  While this is taking longer than we had expected, however this new software would give us the opportunity to integrate our Church software to something which is more comprehensive instead of using multiple software applications that requires the replication of different tasks.  We will be sending communications to inform you of the process and how you are able to log into this new software with ease.  As we enter the new year, you will be hearing about our Stewardship renewal plans for our Parish.  This will not be just monetary, but it will incorporate the financial, ministry and spiritual needs of our parish and school community.

With Fr Tom Bauwens slowly transitioning in, we will be returning to having weekday 6:20am Masses from Tuesday to Friday.  Please note that Mondays at 6:20am will still be a Communion Service.  We will relook at reinstating the 5pm Mass on Sundays after Mary Our Queen and St John Vianney becomes a Family of Parishes on July 1st.

God’s Blessings,

Fr Marc