Sep 26, 2025

Greetings,

The growing season in our Cutting Garden is quickly coming to an end. I am grateful for the beautiful flowers that it provided for our altars over the warmer months. Thank you to the garden crew who tended to our garden over the summer. Attention now will be focusing more on the cooler months and the greenhouse.

Also, thank you to those who worked in the Byrider Vegetable Garden. It was a dry year, but you kept it going!  Finally, thank you to our Volunteer Grounds Crew for all of your wonderful efforts on our property. It has attracted people and compliments all summer despite the dry weather. If you liked our grounds, consider joining the Grounds Crew next summer! They would love and welcome the help! Please keep all of our volunteers in your prayers.

IN OTHER NEWS: OCTOBER COUNTS: Over the next two weekends you may notice the ushers moving around a little during Mass. This is for our annual October Counts, a requirement of the Diocese of Cleveland to assess how many people are attending Mass at each of the parishes.

UPDATE ON OUR DEANERY: We are currently working on establishing a Deanery Committee. The Deanery Committee, which may have clergy in it but who must be a minority, is headed by a lay person called the Deanery Chair. This group of about a dozen persons will be tasked with establishing a yearly set of three goals for Southern Summit County (SSC). These goals must be achievable and have measurable benchmarks. For the first year, our three goals have already been set.

Two of them have been set by Bishop Malesic. The first is to review the Mass and Confession times of all of the parishes and to evaluate if times might need to be changed in some places in order to make Mass more available. For example, all the parishes in our area have Sunday Masses at 9am and 11am. Should there be greater variety? Or are there are too few/many Masses? Are Confession times readily available? The second goal is to establish a more robust Marriage Preparation Program across the Deanery and Diocese. Our Bishop desires that our program resemble more the OCIA (previously RCIA) program.

The final goal was set by evaluating my initial interviews with all of the priests and staffs of the Deanery. Our feedback was analyzed by the Diocesan Offices and a goal set in an area that seemed to need the most attention. The need sighted for SSC is in the area of evangelization. It will be up to the committee to determine how we engage with that.

Here are the confusing terms you may be hearing in the future: We are now in Deaneries where previously we were in Districts. The head of a Deanery is the Dean. A Deanery Meeting would include all of the priests of SSC. A Deanery Committee is headed by a lay person called the Deanery Chair and is made up of mostly if not entirely of the lay faithful. (Both the chair and the committee must be approved by the Bishop). I have relatively nothing to do with the workings of the Deanery Committee except to make sure that they are meeting and moving forward.

The Deanery Assembly includes all of the clergy and staffs of all of the parishes in SSC. Once or twice a year they Deanery Assembly is to meet in order to make sure that we are all on the same page.

It is taking a while to be established but by Christmas I believe we will be up and fully operational. More news on your Deanery as it unfolds!

God bless,

Fr. Valencheck