Aug 21, 2026

Greetings,

This weekend we have our Parish School Open House. On Sunday morning the doors will open for students and their parents to come discover their new teachers, homerooms and  lockers. It’s an exciting day filled with hope and potential as we prepare for the first day of school on August 25. Please pray for our school, her mission and all of her people.

Those who will be attending the Parish School of Religion (PSR), classes will be starting soon for you, too. Registration is already taking place. Send an Email to psr@stsebastian.org to register. Registration forms and information can also be found on the parish website.

For those who are ready to dive in to deep waters and join the Catholic Church or complete one’s sacraments, the Order of Christian Initiation for Adults (OCIA, formally RCIA) is also gearing up to begin sessions. Are you ready?! Send an email to Mr. Keith Johnson at johnsonk@stsebastian.org or call (330) 836-2233 ext. 134.

IN OTHER NEWS:

SHOCKING DEVELOPMENTS: Here is some electrifying news. A week and a half ago, there was a surge of electricity at St. Sebastian Square that played havoc with much of our sensitive electrical equipment. The most notable occurrence was in the frying of an electric board inside our pipe organ. As of this writing, we are waiting for a replacement board, which we expect to be in place by the time you are reading this. I am so amped up to hear our organ again.

We had a wedding last weekend, sans organ. The happy couple was understanding and absolute stand-up souls about the situation. There was also a disappointed person from another parish who came here specifically to hear our organ. “What happened?” she asked. I said this made it the perfect opportunity to come back again.

As you have heard, there are also difficulties with our sound system. This will take about a week and a half to fix. We are waiting for parts. In the meantime, we are doing our best. It seems that no two times we turn on the sound system is it doing the same thing. When the parts arrive, we should be back to our sound system operating at its best. The company was offering sound advice about improving it even further for a cost of about $80K. That project is added to the list of things we might do on the off chance we come across $80K that we don’t know what to do with. We are working with the power company to monitor the power coming into the parish (which has been a problem in the past) and working on a solution to prevent such surges from happening again.

CHANGING OF THE GUARD: Mrs. Cathy Sivec completed her time here as Office Manager last week. She is passing the wand of the Voice of the Parish to Mrs. Angela Morabito-Conrad. Thank you, Cathy, for your years of service in the rectory (and previously as youth director), and many blessings to you in your new role as Head of the Early Learning Center. And welcome to the rectory offices, Angela. I look forward to seeing you develop as the nerve center of the parish. Say a prayer for both of them.

JUST A HEADS-UP: Our Annual Eucharistic Devotions are approaching September 13 through 15. Keep an eye out for sign-up sheets that will be appearing soon to adopt hours during this time.

God bless,

Fr. Valencheck