Dear Parishioners of St. Alphonsus Church,
As we enter into the fall, we wanted to take this opportunity to bring you up to speed on what has been happening at the Parish, and bring to your attention some future plans.
A number of building projects are either completed or in motion. We have installed a security fence to close off the courtyard on the west side of the church, and we also replaced the brick walkway on the east side of the church with a concrete sidewalk, to address potential trip hazards. We are also moving ahead with plans to repair the statue in the courtyard, repair the damaged storm window on the west side of the church, and completing the painting work in the church. Our first goal will be to complete the painting of the walls, in the areas where plaster repairs were previously completed. The bid for this work is being prepared, and will be going to tender in the near future. Once the painting is completed, we will move to examining the repairs of the ceiling plaster.
Two other initiatives that will bring life to our parish campus will also begin in the new year. First, the Diocese of London has asked to relocate their refugee office to St. Alphonsus Church. We have agreed to let the refugee office use the office space at the church, since we have centralized office operations for the Family of Parishes. Over the next few weeks, we will be making some minor modifications to the office area, to accommodate the needs of the refugee office. We are also going to look at creating some smaller meeting places for Parish use, to make up for the loss of use of the existing office space.
Second, we are pleased to announce that we are working hard to launch a comprehensive outreach program for Downtown Windsor, called “St. Alphonsus Cares.” This program will be based on the model that we have implemented at Assumption Parish, and will be initially funded by money that the parish has on hand in the Diocesan Loan Fund. We will have more information about this program in the coming months.
We are hopeful that these initiatives will breathe new life into the St. Alphonsus Parish community, and make our Parish a vibrant presence in Windsor’s downtown core. We ask you to pray for the success of these endeavours, and consider ways that you might support these initiatives as we put them into place.
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Steven Huber, CSB
Administrator of Spiritual Affairs
Deacon Paul Bezaire
Administrator of Temporal Affairs